Denys Corbet

He was born at La Turquie, Vale, Guernsey, Channel Islands and is thought to have lost his parents in childhood.

He is best known for his poems, notably the epic L'Touar de Guernesy, a picaresque tour of the parishes of Guernsey, Les Feuilles de la Fôret (The Leaves of the Forest, 1871), and Les Chànts du drain rimeux, ou Pièces de poësie originale en guernesiais et en français (Songs of the Last Rhymer, or Original Pieces of Poetry in Dgèrnésiais and French, 1884).

[3] As editor of the French-language newspaper Le Bailliage, he also wrote prose columns in Dgèrnésiais under the pen name Badlagoule (Chatterbox).

[citation needed] The French scholar R. J. Lebarbenchon, in a 1988 tribute, described Corbet as "philanthrope, pacifiste, partisan du progrès, apôtre de l'instruction publique, il se classe aussi parmi les modernes et a foi en l'avenir" (philanthropist, pacifist, supporter of progress, apostle of public education, he ranks also among the moderns and has faith in the future).

[1] Today Denys Corbet is largely remembered as a naïve painter of rural life.