Entangled Life

Sentence after sentence stopped me short. 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. A remarkable work by a remarkable writer

ROBERT MACFARLANE, author of Underland

It is impossible to put this book down. Entangled Life provides a window into the mind-boggling biology and fascinating cultures surrounding fungal life, as well as fungi’s innumerable uses in materials, medicine and ecology. Sheldrake asks us to consider a life-form that is radically alien to ours, yet vibrant and lively underfoot

HANS ULRICH OBRIST

A magical journey deep into the roots of Nature by an expert storyteller . . . a must-read for citizen scientists hoping to make a positive difference on this sacred planet we share

PAUL STAMETS, author of Mycelium Running

Fungi are everywhere, and Merlin Sheldrake is an ideal guide to their mysteries. He's passionate, deeply knowledgeable and a wonderful writer

ELIZABETH KOLBERT, author of Under A White Sky

A triumph and a thing of vast beauty

TOM HODGKINSON, The Idler

Delightful to read but also grand and dizzying in how thoroughly it recalibrates our understanding of the natural world

ED YONG, author of An Immense World

One of those rare books that can truly change the way you see the world around you . . . revelatory . . . astounding . . . and brimming with infectious joy

HELEN MACDONALD, author of H is for Hawk

Reading this book, I felt surrounded by a web of wonder. The natural world is more fantastic than any fantasy, so long as you have the means to perceive it. This book provides the means

JARON LANIER, author of Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

As hard to put down as a thrilling detective novel, and one of the best works of popular science writing that I have enjoyed in years

DENNIS MCKENNA, author (with Terence McKenna) of Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower’s Guide

I have been working on and reading and writing about fungi for a decade. And yet, nearly every page of this book contained either an observation so interesting or a turn of phrase so lovely that I was moved to slow down, stop, and reread . . . This book rocked me into remembering that nature, especially fungal nature, is big and encompassing and creative and destructive. It reminded me that fungi are, like the Universe, sublime

Rob Dunn, Science

You may never look at fungi in the same way . . . an eye-opening exploration of this mysterious taxonomic kingdom . . . a journey into an untapped world. It is both a wonderful collection of fungal feats . . and a personal account of Sheldrake's experiences with these miraculous organisms

New Scientist

This is a book that, by virtue of the power of its writing, shifts your sense of the human . . . It will inspire a generation

MICHAEL POLLAN (Bay Area Book Festival, 2020)

Brilliant . . . entrancing . . . when we look closely [at fungi], we meet large, unsettling questions . . . Merlin Sheldrake . . . carries us easily into these questions with ebullience and precision . . . challenging some of our deepest assumptions

Guardian

Mind-boggling . . . It's tempting . . . to see fungi as the biological model for a better world

Telegraph

Playful, strange, intensely philosophical ... Until very recently, human knowledge of this most mysterious lifeform, neither plant nor animal, has been extremely limited. This is astounding, given ... their seismic impact on life on earth ... [Sheldrake's] central vision of the interconnectedness of all life-forms feels shiveringly prescient'

Telegraph

After this book, nothing will seem the same again . . . beautifully written and illustrated . . . dazzling . . . reveals a world that's both more extraordinary and more delicate than could be imagined

Mail on Sunday

A joy . . . a captivating trip into the weird and wonderful mycorrhizal world around us - and inside us . . . full of startling revelations

Daily Mail

Deeply engaging and constantly surprising . . . the magic of mushrooms is not merely mind-expanding . . . it might expand the very concept of mind

PHILIP BALL, Prospect

This is not just for mushroom-heads - it is science at its most uplifting

JEANETTE WINTERSON, The Times

If you had told me a book about fungi would be both enthralling and completely mind-blowing, I wouldn't have believed you. And yet. Dazzlingly good

INDIA KNIGHT, Sunday Times

Gorgeous, intelligent, utterly absorbing . . . it expands our world, and makes us look up from the page with renewed wonder

Irish Times

The oddest and most uplifting book . . . It is, to say the least, rare to find such a vast area of life on Earth - fungi - about which one knows almost nothing, and which gives promise of being so important to human life during our next century

ANDREW MARR, New Statesman Books of the Year

A revelation . . . Changes the way we need to look at life, the planet and ourselves

ISABELLA TREE, author of Wilding

A true masterpiece, a thrilling and fascinating insight into the living world . . . I hope and trust that it will become an instant classic

GEORGE MONBIOT

Blew my mind . . . Essential reading. Go and get swept up in a new world

ANDREA WULF, author of The Invention of Nature

Riveting and surprising at every turn . . . A sensory as well as an intellectual pleasure

New Statesman

Wondrous . . . Humans should consider fungi among the greatest of earth's marvels

Time, Books of the Year

Truly astounding . . . An engrossing, captivating journey

Spectator

Astonishing . . . it's impossible to finish this book without feeling awestruck

ANDREW MOTION, TLS Books of the Year

Wonderfully written . . . surprising . . . The best science writing invites people to view the world around them in a new way, and Entangled Life is a perfect example

BRIAN COX