Bernard Le Nail - Wales loses a dear friend

Bernard Le Nail who died yesterday morning (Tuesday), aged 63, was a great friend and admirer of Wales. He attended the Celtic Congress regularly and from time to time he would visit the National Eisteddfod. He admired the enthusiasm of the Welsh for their language and the success of Plaid Cymru, Urdd Gobaith Cymru, the Welsh Books Council and the National Library.

His knowledge of Wales would shame most Welshmen and he was equally well informed about the other Celtic countries. As for Brittany, he was an encyclopaedia on legs.

He was born in Paris, and when I first got to know him over 30 years ago he worked for the Nantes Chamber of Trade. It was my wife, Gwen, who first met him. She was a member of a choir, Côr Godre'r Garth, which visited Nantes in the mid-1970s.

She was rummaging in a book stall at the festival, looking for a play I wanted by Tangi Malmanche – Ar Baganiz, I believe. Bernard was in charge of the stall and when he found out what Gwen was looking for, and why, she came away with an armful of Malmanche plays with out paying for any one of them. I have been in his debt ever since. Bernard's generosity to anyone interested in Brittany was notorious.

Nantes is not a city where the Breton language is often heard. « My interest began when I read a book by Yann Fouéré and found out about all the Bretons who had been killed – 250,000 – in the Great War, » he told me.

« I became interested in Breton music and learnt to play the biniou. Then I began to learn the language through Marc'harid Gourlaouen's Skol Ober – a correspondence course.»

From the Nantes Chamber of Trade he became Director of the Institut Culturel de Bretagne, based in Rennes. He brought with him experience and ideas for getting private sector financial support for the arts.

Breton – particularly Breton language – culture does not enjoy the same public sector support as Welsh. Yet, visit a book festival in Brittany and this fact is not evident. Miracles have been achieved on small funding much of which I suspect is due to Bernard and the years he spent from 1983 to 2000 with the Institut Culturel and his opportunism.

More than once, he saw potential in chance remarks I made and offered practical assistance. “Can I be a co-producer?” he once asked me. “I don't want to interfere but I'll bring some cash to the table.”

That was how the Maison des Johnnies project in Roscoff began. And when Roscoff Town Council leapt at the idea, and offered their money, Bernard backed off. He had got the project going and he could make very good use of his money elsewhere.

When it was decided to move the headquarters of the Institut Culturel from Rennes to Vannes he resigned. His children – Marie, Donatien and Aziliz – were still at the Diwan primary school. He set up his own publishing company, Editions Les Portes du Large, specialising in French books on Breton connections with foreign countries.

Rich history

As a people, the Bretons have a rich and colourful seafaring tradition which is too often submerged in the history of France. How many people know that Malouines is the original form of Malvinas – that the islands were first discovered by sailors from Saint Malo? Jacques Cartier, the first European to sail up the St Lawrence, was also from Saint Malo. This is one of Bernard's great contributions – he wrote of these adventures and published books by others on the same theme. The inspiration for these ideas, perhaps, came from the time he spent teaching in Mexico – where he went as an alternative to doing military service.

Where he got the time and energy from I will never know. Although a publisher in his own right he accepted commissions to write books for other publishers. An earlier book was the magnificent Bretagne – pays de mer with photographs by Philip Plisson published by Hachette. Jointly, with his wife Jacqueline, who has a responsible job in Rennes library, they compiled the Dictionnaire des Auteurs de Jeunesse de Bretagne, and the Dictionnaire des Romanciers de Bretagne. Another of his invaluable books of reference is L'Almanach de la Bretagne published by Larousse in 2003

As for the books in the Portes du Large catalogue, there is the sumptuous volume by Philippe Godard and Tugdual de Kerros : Louis de Saint Aloüarn: Un Marin breton à la conquête des Terres Australes – published in 2002. A gorgeously beautiful volume, full of colour, pictures and maps. Will we ever see anything as beautiful by a Welsh publisher?

Brittany has a huge wealth of surnames – many thousands of them. Names taken from towns and villages and farms, names depicting the work of the head of the household, or a name describing the person or his temperament. Bernard once told me that originally Le Nail may have been an Ael (the Angel).

In his generosity and readiness with a favour, he was truly angelic. But he did not suffer fools readily. I remember going with him to a small chapel in Paimpont forest.

A busload of people arrived about the same time and their guide began to give a lecture on a mural covering one of the walls. It was obvious that Bernard thought she was talking a lot of rubbish and very soon he interrupted, told her what he thought of her and proceeded to given the visitors his own lecture.

Brittany will never be the same without Bernard. But he was generous in the way he made sure I knew many people, that I was always comfortable in the country. And that I shall always be so. But Brittany will be so much poorer for losing him, so tragically young.

I cannot imagine the pain and the shock to the family. When I returned home after Christmas, I checked my emails and noticed two from Bernard Le Nail. I opened the first. It had been sent on Christmas Eve (December 24), a Christmas Card from Bernard. The second, I found to have been sent by Jacqueline the day after Christmas telling me of his massive stroke. May God Bless her and the three young children, two just beginning their higher education and one still at school.

Gwyn Griffiths

See also in Welsh : (voir le site) of BBC Blog Cylchgrawn.