Secret Life of Fungi

Fungi are not like us - they are entirely, magically, something else. Welcome to the astonishing secret world of fungi. 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. Despite their familiar presence, there's still much to learn about the eruption, growth and decay of their interconnected world. From fields, feasts and fairy rings to death caps, puffballs and ambrosia beetles, this is an intoxicating personal journey into the life of extraordinary organism, one that we have barely begun to understand.

Aliya Whiteley grew up in North Devon and developed an early passion for walking and observing nature. Today she writes about the natural world for Mental Floss and in her fiction, which has been shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke award, among others. Whiteley's novella, The Beauty, depicted a future world in which a fungus interacts with humanity and creates a new form of life, leading readers all over the world to send her photographs and articles relating to mushrooms. Her new novel, Greensmith (May 2020), deals with seed banks and viruses, and the current global threat to diversity. She was formerly the Deputy Editor of Explore - a magazine that tackles one subject in depth per issue, such as dinosaurs, the solar system or indeed plant-life. She walks through the woods and fields around her home in West Sussex every day, taking inspiration from the hidden worlds around her.