John Wright

John Wright is a passionate natural historian and the author of the River Cottage Handbooks Mushrooms, Edible Seashore, Hedgerow and Booze. He gives lectures on natural history and every year he takes around fifty ‘forays’, showing people how to collect food from hedgerow, shore, pasture and wood.

In the Round Room, John will be talking about his latest book, The Naming of the Shrew, a witty tribute to the history, construction and joyousness of the Latin names that describe our natural world

Latin names – frequently unpronounceable and always a tiny puzzle to unravel – have been perplexing the layman since they first became formalised as scientific terms in the eighteenth century. Why, you might ask, did anyone go to the trouble of inventing them?

Here John Wright reveals the answer: he traces the ancient quest to organise the creatures that share our planet. He reveals the beauty, meanings, frequent absurdity and essential utility of Latin names, explaining the arcane rules that govern their usage. He shines a spotlight on such pressing questions as ‘Why do we call a gorilla Gorilla gorilla gorilla?’ and ‘How come, if they are supposed to be definitive, do the damn things change all the time?’. Most of all, he tells the stories of the triumphs and delightful misunderstandings of the men and women who devise them.