Close Encounters of the Fungal Kind

In Pursuit of Remarkable Mushrooms

Richard Fortey

A magical, deeply informed book that takes us from familiar places into the strange world of of fungi.

The secret world of fungi is another kingdom. They do things differently there. Diverse beyond our wildest imaginations, fungi don’t obey rules. They pop up unbidden and often dressed in curious reds and greens.

They do not seem of this world, yet fungi underpin all the life around us: the "wood wide web" links the trees by a subterranean telegraph; fungi eat the fallen trunks and leaves to recycle the nutrients that keep the wood alive; they feed a host of beetles and flies, which in turn feed birds and bats. Fungi produce the most expensive foods in the world but also offer the prospect of cheap protein for all; they cure disease, and they both cause disease and kill; they are the specialists to surpass all others; their diversity thrills and bewilders.

Professor Richard Fortey has been a devoted field mycologist all his life. He has rejoiced in the exuberant variety and profusion of mushrooms since reading as a boy of nuns driven mad by ergot (a fungus). Drawing on decades of experience, Fortey starts with the perfect "fungus day"—eating ceps in Piedmont. He introduces brown rotters, earthstars, and death caps; fungal annuals and perennials, dung lovers and parasites, even fungi that move through the trees like mycelial monkeys. We learn that the giant puffball produces more spores than there are known stars in the universe and fetid stinkhorns begin looking like arrivals from the planet Tharg. He tells of the fungus that turns flies into zombies, the ones that clean up metallic waste, and the delicious subterranean fungi truffe de Perigord, the delight of gourmets.

Amongst these and many other "close encounters," Fortney attempts to answer the questions: what exactly are fungi? Why did their means of reproduction escape discovery for so long? What role do they play in the development of life?

The vast kingdom of fungi is more diverse and species rich than plants or animals. By exploring their glorious profusion, Close Encounters of the Fungal Kind reveals so much about their world—and ours.

Richard Fortey retired from his position as senior palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in 2006. He is the author of several books, including Fossils: A Key to the Past, The Hidden Landscape which won The Natural World Book of the Year, Life: An Unauthorised Biography, Trilobite! and The Earth: An Intimate History. He has been elected to be President of the Geological Society of London for its bicentennial year of 2007, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society.

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Endorsements & Reviews

"A very enjoyable book that brilliantly blends science, insight and passion."

Tristan Gooley, author of How to Read a Tree

Praise for Richard Fortey

"Dazzling. Richard Fortey is without peer amongst science writers."

Bill Bryson

"A lively writer with a penchant for slightly goofy jokes, a vast storehouse of arcane knowledge, and an inexhaustible fund of enthusiasm for his subject, Fortey is the perfect interpreter and guide to the marvels and mysteries of archaic existence." The Boston Globe   

"Absorbing and cinematic. This should be read by every person who wants to really know and understand the place we live on." The New York Times

"Crammed with interesting material, vividly and colorfully conveyed. Fortey is a writer with a gift for making natural history come alive. Atreasure-house of mind-expanding lore." Los Angeles Times

"Delightful and beautifully written, Fortey has an eye for the world about him that would be envied by some travel writers. Interesting and impassioned." The Literary Review

"Fortey’s books are always a treat. It’s not just that they are beautifully written in mellifluous prose but that his vision is wonderfully humane." The Evening Standard

"This is the way science should be written: so engagingly that it makes you forget that you’re actually learning something (actually, you’re learning a lot), and carrying you swiftly from page to page. Filled with insight, science, history, charm and wit." The Times (London)