According to Wikipedia I am a Cornwall-based, Cornish author and community activist. So I suppose it must be true. Much to my disappointment I was not born in Cornwall, but I am lucky enough to have a large, extended, Cornish family that can trace its roots back to 1535 in Pydarshire, and this is where my interest in the Cornish language stems from. I’ve been involved in the language since the early 1980’s, having started to learn whilst at University, being a member of Agan Tavas, and eventually its Chair. I launched its magazine An Gowsva, edited and then produced it for several years. I campaigned for the language to be officially recognised, and negotiated its first funding settlement with the Government for the South West.
I am also fortunate that my very first job after graduating was at the University of Bristol, as part of a team studying sudden infant death symdrome (cot death), which gave me an early start using data processing techniques to process large datasets, a continued theme in my research. I worked for 14 years for British Aerospace and Airbus, for much of this as a programme and project manager, delivering numerous projects, the largest being worth around £10m. There were two changes in career direction after that, one to work in the community sector on Cornish regeneration programmes, and then another in 2010, when I went to work in the University sector.
There have been several publications along the way too, mostly substantial company documents, such as large specifications, very large process models (thousands of processes), and large investigatory documents. I have also produced publications for a wider-readership, such as my Cornish language teaching book Kernuak Es, the Partnership Toolkit for Community Groups, with my long-standing friend and colleague, Tom Jane, and three major publications for the Cornish Constitutional Convention, Devolution for One and All, The Case for Cornwall, and Devolution for Prosperity.