Rod Lyon was born in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

and trained as a civil engineer. After spending some early years at sea, he worked until retirement as a Local Government Officer. He was the Grand Bard of the

Gorseth Kernow Gorsedh Kernow (Cornish Gorsedd) is a non-political Cornish organisation, based in Cornwall, United Kingdom, which exists to maintain the national Celtic spirit of Cornwall. It is based on the Welsh-based Gorsedd, which was founded by Iolo Mor ...

between 2003-2006 with the

bardic name A bardic name (, ) is a pseudonym used in Wales, Cornwall, or Brittany by poets and other artists, especially those involved in the eisteddfod movement. The Welsh term bardd ("poet") originally referred to the Welsh poets of the Middle Ages, who m ...

of "Tewennow". His involvement in Cornish matters revolves mainly around the development of the

Cornish language Cornish (Standard Written Form: or ) , is a Southwestern Brittonic language, Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It is a List of revived languages, revived language, having become Extinct language, extinct as a livin ...

, which includes work on the radio and writing. He sits on the

Cornish Language Board Kesva an Taves Kernewek ( Cornish for ''Cornish Language Board'') is an organisation that promotes the Cornish language. It was founded in 1967 by Gorseth Kernow and the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies. It is represented on the official lan ...

, the Cornish Esedhvos (equivalent to the Welsh Eisteddfod) and various committees within and associated with the Gorseth. Lyon can be heard at 5pm every Sunday reading the news in Cornish on BBC Radio Cornwall. He has long been an active writer of fiction and non-fiction in and about the Cornish language. Some notable works of fiction include ''Dhe Emlow an Galaksi'', ''Dicky Holla'', and ''Tenkys'', and non-fiction works include ''Cornish - The Struggle for Survival'' and ''Colloquial Doesn't Mean Corrupt: Observations on contemporary Revived Cornish''. These works display Lyon's idiolectal Cornish.

References

People from Cornwall Grand Bards of Gorsedh Kernow Writers from Cornwall British male writers Cornish language Cornish-speaking people Cornish nationalists BBC newsreaders and journalists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{cornwall-stub