The Secret Life of Fungi

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Fungiare not like us – they are entirely, magically, something else.  

Welcometo the astonishing secret world of fungi. 

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Fungi can appear anywhere, from desert dunes tofrozen tundra. They can invade our bodies and thoughts; live between our toesor our floorboards; they are unwelcome intruders or vastly expensive treats;symbols of both death and eternal life. But despite their familiar presence,there’s still much to learn about the eruption, growth and decay of theirinterconnected world. 

AliyaWhiteley has always been in love with fungi – from a childhood taking blurryphotographs of strange fungal eruptions on Exmoor to a career as a writerinspired by their surreal and alien beauty. This love for fungi is a love forlife, from single-cell spores to the largest living organism on the planet; astory stretching from Aliya’s lawn into orbit and back again via everycontinent.

From fields, feasts and fairy rings to deathcaps, puffballs and ambrosia beetles, this is an intoxicating journey into thelife of extraordinary organism, one that we have barely begun tounderstand. 

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‘Accessible, inviting and revelatory? Aliya Whiteley animates the hidden worldof fungi in prose as rich and beautiful as the strange organisms she turns herattention to.’  – Alice Tarbuck, author of A Spell in the Wild