For thousands of ears, mushrooms have fascinated people. They have long beguiled us with their beauty and haunted us with their potential to do harm. We have treasured them for their medicinal and trance-inducing properties and delighted in their succulent taste. Always, we have marvelled at their miraculous appearance. And we have gone to incredible lengths to seek out the choicest varieties or to learn to cultivate the few varieties that will allow it. Mushrooms are more than just food, so this is more than just a cookbook.

Here are innovative recipes, scientific morphology and classification, and identification and gathering tips to form the most comprehensive guide available on the subject of edible mushrooms. Everything is here: from an insight into the extraordinary role of fungi in history and folklore to a vivid description of the thrill of the mushroom hunt itself. It provides clear instructions for singling out delectable varieties from poisonous look-alikes, and where or under what conditions the most sought-after types are likely to be found.

Above all, mushrooms are to be eaten, and at the heart of the book are its seventy superb recipes. All are imbued with the spirit of the mushrooms themselves.

Loaded with beautiful photographs of mushrooms in both their natural habitat and in the delicious recipes that have been created for them, this book will appeal equally to the gourmand and the naturalist.