Richard Gendall was born in 1924. He was first introduced to his native Cornish language when he was four years old. After serving during the war, he took a degree in modern languages. At University, he started work on reversing Nance's 1938 Cornish-English dictionary and produced the new English-Cornish dictionary in 1952. He launched the magazine Hedhyu in 1955 and in 1966 initiated and named the Cornish Language Board.
In 1984 he turned to the study of Modern Cornish in earnest, publishing Laugh and Learn Traditional Cornish in 1987, An Curnoack Hethow in 1992, and A Practical Dictionary of Modern Cornish in 1997. He is currently rewriting his Practical Dictionary, based on the large amount of new material that has recently come to light.
Somehow, he also finds the time to write poetry and we are delighted Richard Gendall is the Cyprus Well Poet of the Month for November.
A further selection of Richard's work is published in Nothing Broken: Recent Poetry in Cornish, edited by Tim Saunders and published by Francis Boutle. The Language of Our Forefathers, with accompanying CD is now available from www.robbiewright.com.
