Entangled Life – How Fungi Make Our Worlds (The Illustrated Edition)

Merlin Sheldrake
Bodley Head, £30.00

The original edition of Entangled Life has been widely acclaimed, winning the Royal Society Science Book Prize and the Wainwright Prize. This new, illustrated edition, abridged by the author from the original, includes more than 100 full-colour images, ranging from photographs of lichenous trees, to close-ups of mushrooms to scanning electron micrographs of fungal hyphae and spores – all are stunningly beautiful and revealing.

For his PhD, Sheldrake worked on underground fungal networks in tropical forests and, in the book’s prologue, he describes following tree roots into the soil to find the fungal webs that are integral to these forests’ survival. This is bookended, in the epilogue, with a tale of how, as a child, with his father’s help, he investigated the decomposition of autumnal leaves in their garden. His lifelong fascination with fungi has manifested itself practically and academically and this is reflected throughout the book, as he describes how fungi are intimately and inexorably linked with the rest of the living, and in some cases the non-living, world.

Ultimately, this is a story of relationships formed by fungi, from mycorrhizal partnerships with plants, that swing from mutualism to parasitism, to luring animals to aid in spore dispersal, or to be devoured, or both. Some relationships are perhaps as close as it’s possible to be – the symbiotic fungi and algae that form lichens are so intertwined, structurally and functionally, that it is difficult to see them as anything other than single organisms.

Understanding more about fungi has the potential to change the way we view the world, both literally, through the production of alcohol and mind-expanding hallucinogens, and philosophically, through a deeper appreciation of the integral relationships they have formed, directly or indirectly, with all other living things, relationships that have shaped and continue to shape life on Earth.

Mike Smith FRSB

Reviewed by Mike Smith FRSB