The secret world of fungi is another kingdom. They do not seem of this world, yet fungi underpin all the life around us: the "wood wide web" links the trees by a subterranean telegraph; fungi eat the fallen trunks and leaves to recycle the nutrients that keep the wood alive; they feed a host of beetles and flies, which in turn feed birds and bats. Fungi produce the most expensive foods in the world but also offer the prospect of cheap protein for all; they cure disease, and they both cause disease and kill; they are the specialists to surpass all others; their diversity thrills and bewilders.

Professor Richard Fortey has been a devoted field mycologist all his life. He has rejoiced in the exuberant variety and profusion of mushrooms since reading as a boy of nuns driven mad by ergot (a fungus). He introduces brown rotters, earthstars, and death caps; fungal annuals and perennials, dung lovers and parasites, even fungi that move through the trees like mycelial monkeys. He tells of the fungus that turns flies into zombies, the ones that clean up metallic waste, and the delicious subterranean fungi truffe de Perigord. Amongst these and many other "close encounters," Fortney attempts to answer the questions: what exactly are fungi? Why did their means of reproduction escape discovery for so long? What role do they play in the development of life?