E. G. Retallack Hooper

{{Short description|British writer and journalist}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Ernest George Retallack Hooper (1906–1998),{{cite book|last = Koch|first = John T.|authorlink = John T. Koch|title = Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia|publisher = ABC-CLIO|date = 2006|location = Santa Barbara, California|pages = 493|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=vSIZAQAAIAAJ&q=%22EGR+Hooper%22|isbn = 1851094407}} also known by his bardic name Talek (broad-bowed),[https://books.google.com/books?id=L709AAAAIAAJ&dq=retallack+hooper&pg=PA159 The Cornish Language and Its Literature By Peter Berresford Ellis]{{Cite book|title=Mebyon Kernow and Cornish Nationalism|last1=Deacon|first1=Bernard|last2=Cole|first2=Dick|last3=Tregidga|first3=Garry|publisher=Welsh Academic Press|year=2003|isbn=1860570755|location=Wales|pages=127|authorlink1=Bernard Deacon (linguist)|authorlink2=Dick Cole (politician)|authorlink3=Garry Tregidga}} was a British writer and journalist from St. Agnes.{{Citation needed|date=September 2018}}

Hooper was taught the Cornish language from A.S.D. Smith (Caradar). He qualified in horticulture at KewJOURNAL OF THE KEW GUILD p57 VOLUME 11 1991 and became a bard in 1932.[http://cornovia.org.uk/htexts/gorseth01.html E. G. Retallack Hooper] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090710114042/http://cornovia.org.uk/htexts/gorseth01.html |date=2009-07-10 }} In the 1930s, he was one of the more political members of Tyr ha Tavas, a youth movement formed to promote the Cornish language.

During the Second World War, Hooper was based in Gibraltar. He was encouraged by his wife to enter teaching in the post-war period, during which he ran the Mount Pleasant House School in Camborne, where he pioneered the teaching of the Cornish language and was featured on BBC's Tonight programme, interviewed by Alan Whicker. Two additional schools were opened - one at Wendron and another, Brandon College, in Truro.{{Citation needed|date=September 2018}} Hooper became the third Grand Bard of the Gorseth Kernow, serving from 1959 to 1964. During his time as Grand Bard, Hooper maintained close links with the Gorseddau of Wales and Brittany and he was a member of both.{{Citation needed|date=September 2018}}

Hooper was a founding member of Mebyon Kernow, a Cornish nationalist party, in 1951 and he participated in its election campaigns during the 1960s; he was elected the party's honorary president in 1973.

For 17 years, Hooper edited the Cornish language newsletter An Lef Kernewek (The Cornish Voice). He produced a Cornish language revised translation of St Mark’s Gospel in 1960, and a translation of St Luke's Gospel in 1989.{{Citation needed|date=September 2018}}