The Secret Life of Fungi: Discoveries From a Hidden World

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Fungi
are not like us - they are entirely, magically, something else.


Welcome
to the astonishing secret world of fungi.


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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.


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'
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