VERY SAD NEWS - Jan Williams RIP

I was working on Karl Shuker's new book over the weekend when I decided on a whim to see to whom this latest volume was dedicated. I was very shocked when I read:

...And also to the memory of Jan Williams, who was not only a highly proficient and totally professional cryptozoological researcher but also a good friend and a lovely lady.

She was, indeed, a lovely lady, and she was my friend as well, although I am mildly embarrassed to admit that we drifted apart over ten years ago. However, if it had not been for her help and kindness in the early days, the CFZ as we know it would never have come into existance. As I write in my autobiography:

I have to admit, with hindsight of a over a decade, at that time I was becoming very frustrated with my cryptozoological research. I had been doing it as a hobby for nearly 25 years, and whilst it was all very well forming something called the Centre for Fortean Zoology, I had no idea how I was going to turn my vision into reality. So, when during the summer of 1993 one of my acquaintances - a lady called Jan Williams who lived in Congleton in Cheshire - announced that she was going to start up her own cryptozoological organisation, I was happy to put my own plans for the CFZ on hold and throw myself into working for S.C.A.N - The Society for Cryptozoogy and the Anomalies of Nature.

The arrival of this new organisation could not have come at a better time for me, because although I was quite happy to continue my researches, pressure of other commitments was getting in the way of my plans for starting up the ultimate Cryptozoological research organisation of my own.

And half a chapter later...

Back in the world of cryptozoology, my new-found position as a member of the rank and file of SCAN was not going too well either. I have never found out why - and after this length of time it is none of my business - but all was not well [.....] After only four issues of their newsletter she announced that they were going to close. Then, I had a wonderful idea. I telephoned Jan and suggested that she joined me in making my vision of the Centre for Fortean Zoology into a reality. I told her of my background in Small Press Publishing and suggested that we start a magazine dedicated to cryptozoology. I even had a name for it - Animals & Men (the name of a song on the first album by Adam and the Ants). I suggested to her that if we were to take over the membership list of SCAN (after having let all the members have the chance of their money back if they wanted it), then we would not be in the awkward position of starting up a new publication without the benefit of having any readers for it. To my great joy, Jan agreed, and in April 1994 [...] the first, faltering steps towards a proper Centre for Fortean Zoology had just been made.

So, although I hadn't spoken to Jan, her husband Keith (who incidentally coded our first proper website) and their kids for something like 12 years (Michael, the little boy who did drawings for one of the earliest issues of A&M must be in his twenties now, and his younger sister was a toddler last time I saw her but must be in her late teens), the news that she died of cancer earlier in the year was an enormous shock. I just want to say to Jan: thank you, my dear. Without you my life would have been immeasurably different. I owe you a debt that can never be repayed.