“I think there are a number of reasons, some of them quite simple. We began by asking him what he thinks has brought them into view now. Before the burgeoning interest of the last few decades, many aspects of fungal life were largely invisible and their properties unknown of the estimated 2.2 to 3.8 million species, 90 per cent are still undocumented. They lie somewhere between plants and animals, and as Merlin points out, there is no university department devoted specifically to them. Isabella Tree – of Wilding fame – has said that it ‘changes the way we need to look at life, the planet and ourselves’ and it does, indeed, seem that almost every page reveals some new, hitherto unsuspected wonder.įungi do not fit in to our traditional classification of things as animal, vegetable or mineral. Combining the latest scientific research – the field is called ‘mycology’ – with stories of personal experience and a vivid style of writing, Entangled Life is an accessible and comprehesive introduction to a subject which seems to have particular relevance to us today. Until recently, fungi have been a relatively neglected area of study, but as Merlin Sheldrake’s recent book, Entangled Life, reveals, the fungal world is as vast, varied and complex as the realms of plants and animals which have been the object of human investigation since antiquity.
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