The Secret Life of Fungi

I've been a fan of Aliya Whiteley's speculative fiction novels for several years and reading of her lifelong fascination with fungi in The Secret Life Of Fungi has helped me to understand her surreal-seeming creative inspirations. This book is such a fascinating read. Although relatively short, it packs in masses of information about the complex and often bizarre lifecycles of fungi interwoven with memoir scenes from Whiteley's life which add a nice personal touch.

I read The Secret Life Of Fungi at a particularly apt time, having twice (carefully!) foraged for field mushrooms over the previous couple of weeks. Whiteley amazed me in revealing that there are over 15,000 fungi species in the UK alone and that the three most common types in our shops - button, chestnut and portobello - are actually all the same species. Apparently our fungi use can be traced archaeologically back over thousands of years yet, in common with so many other areas of traditional expertise, much of what used to be common knowledge is now lost and widespread environmental destruction means potential beneficial discoveries might never have the chance to be made. Similarly the exploration of soil in Regenesis by George Monbiot, Whiteley points out how little we know about the fungi world despite their being intricately connected to pretty much every aspect of our being.

Having learned so much more about the myriad fungi around and within us, I feel even more disconcerted about them. There's an eerie quality to fungi, perhaps due mostly to a lack of deep understanding, however I am now feeling empowered to purchase one of those selection boxes of less familiar culinary mushrooms. I'm not feeling tempted to expand my fungi foraging though!