Description
Book Synopsis_____; Fungi are not like us – they are entirely, magically, something else.; Welcome to the astonishing secret world of fungi.; _____; Fungi can appear anywhere, from desert dunes to frozen tundra. They can invade our bodies and thoughts; live between our toes or 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 their interconnected world.; Aliya Whiteley has always been in love with fungi - from a childhood taking blurry photographs of strange fungal eruptions on Exmoor to a career as a writer inspired by their surreal and alien beauty. This love for fungi is a love for life, from single-cell spores to the largest living organism on the planet; a story stretching from Aliya's lawn into orbit and back again via every continent.; From fields, feasts and fairy rings to death caps, puffballs and ambrosia beetles, this is an intoxicating journey into the life of extraordinary organism, one that we have barely begun to understand.; _____; ' Accessible, inviting and revelatory… Aliya Whiteley animates the hidden world of fungi in prose as rich and beautiful as the strange organisms she turns her attention to.' - Alice Tarbuck, author of A Spell in the Wild
Trade Review'The Secret Life of Fungi is a brave foray into the Third Kingdom - exploring the otherness of these life forms, and examining those points at which they impinge on the lifecycle of humankind.' - Linden Hawthorne, author and horticulturist
Table of ContentsContents; Introduction ix; Erupt; 1 To Name, To Know 3; 2 A Small Field 9; 3 The Common Mushroom 17; 4 Forays and Feasts 23; 5 Learn, Carry, Collect 27; 6 Saviours 33; 7 Fruiting Cities 39; 8 Weak Seeds Need Strong Friends 45; 9 Cryptic Clues 51; 10 Blanket Coverage 55; 11 Slow Dancers, Thrown High 59; Spread; 1 Nosing 65; 2 Spire 71; 3 The Giant 75; 4 Walking the Floor 81; 5 Old Stones 85; 6 Under Alice 91; 7 Expansions 95; 8 Once Upon a Beetle 99; 9 Seven Ways to Survive 105; 10 Stowaways of the Space Age 117; Decay; 1 Gathering the Dead 125; 2 The Big Stick 129; 3 Fire, Faith and Gangrene 137; 4 Where the Rule Bends 143; 5 Killer Club 147; 6 Underground Visions 151; 7 To Live and Die in Fungi 157; 8 Grasp 163; 9 Onwards, Downwards, Upwards 167; Afterword 171; Dramatis Fungi 175; Bibliography 177; A Reading List of Fungal Fiction 185; Acknowledgements 187; Index 189
