NATURE lovers are in for a treat at this year’s Bridport Literary Festival, with two acclaimed authors giving illustrated talks in the morning at the Bull Ballroom.

Peter Marren will be delving into his new book, Emperors, Admirals and Chimney-Sweepers, The Naming of Butterflies and Moths, on Tuesday, November 5.

And Stephen Moss unlocks a treasure trove of folk history with Mrs Moreau’s Warbler: How Birds Got Their Names. He’ll be speaking on Thursday, November 7 for the Kenneth Allsop Memorial Talk.

Marren’s book is written with his usual wit and insight and takes the reader on a journey back to a time before the arts and science were divided. When entomologists were also poets and painters, and when a gift for vivid language went hand-in-hand with a deep, pre-Darwinian fascination for the emerging natural world.

Many have remarked on the poetic names of our butterflies and moths. Their beauty fires our imaginations. Some are named after human occupations and social rank: Emperors, footmen, a miller, Quakers, lackeys, ‘rustics’ and chimney-sweepers. Still more are named after animals: tigers, hawks, goats, sharks, even pug dogs.

There are species named after jewels, musical instruments, fabrics, letters, carpets, flowers, heraldry and shells. Some names are downright baffling. Why was one butterfly called an ‘admiral’ and another an ‘argus’? Why, for that matter, are they called ‘butterflies’?

Marren has written widely on the natural world and our association with it. Among some twenty books, he is the author of Rainbow Dust, Bugs Britannica, The New Naturalists which won the Thackray Medal, as well as contributions to Collins New Naturalist, the British Wildlife Collection and Poyser Natural History, He writes regularly for British Wildlife and Butterfly magazine and is a former columnist in The Countryman.

Through fascinating encounters with the bird kingdom and the rich cast of characters responsible for coming up with their names, in Mrs Moreau’s Warbler Stephen Moss shows how these words reveal as much about ourselves and our relationship with the natural world as about the creatures they describe.

His credits included Springwatch, Birds Britannia and The Nature of Britain.

His books include The Robin: A Biography, A Bird in the Bush, The Bumper Book of Nature, Wild Hares and Hummingbirds and Wild Kingdom. He is also senior Lecturer in nature and travel writing at Bath Spa University. Originally from London, he lives with his family on the Somerset Levels, and is president of the Somerset Wildlife Trust.