[2] Following the death of his mother,[3] when he was three years old, Bernard was brought up by two aunts in West Norwood, London.
His first school was St Joseph's College, Upper Norwood, and with a friend Terry Dillon, they visited nearby bombsites to find butterflies.
Later they cycled to Streatham and Mitcham Commons and to Selsdon Bird Sanctuary.
[5] Bernard married Jacqueline Wood (known as Jackie) at Newton Abbot in March 1967.
In collaboration with David Wilson, who took the photographs for the 42 colour plates, the book provided up to date species accounts for each macro-moth found in Britain and Ireland in the last one hundred years.