I ended it wonderstruck at the fungal world - the secrets of which modern science is only now beginning to fathom - and the earth-shaking, hierarchy-breaking implications of Sheldrake's argument. Sentence after sentence stopped me short. ''A dazzling, vibrant, vision-changing book.

Publisher: Vintage Publishing ISBN: 9781784708276 Number of pages: 368 Weight: 340 g Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 27 mm MEDIA REVIEWS Yet over ninety percent of their species remain undocumented.Įntangled Life is a mind-altering journey into a spectacular and neglected world, and shows that fungi provide a key to understanding both the planet on which we live, and life itself. Their ability to digest plastic, explosives, pesticides and crude oil is being harnessed in break-through technologies, and the discovery that they connect plants in underground networks, the 'Wood Wide Web', is transforming the way we understand ecosystems. In giving us bread, alcohol and life-saving medicines, fungi have shaped human history, and their psychedelic properties have recently been shown to alleviate a number of mental illnesses. These endlessly surprising organisms have no brain but can solve problems and manipulate animal behaviour with devastating precision. In fact, nearly all life relies in some way on fungi/ They enabled the first life on land, can survive unprotected in space and thrive amidst nuclear radiation.

They can be microscopic, yet also account for the largest organisms ever recorded. Neither plant nor animal, they are found throughout the earth, the air and our bodies. The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them. Shortlisted for the British Book Awards Non-Fiction Narrative Book of the Year 2021 Winner of the Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation 2021

Entangled life merlin sheldrake