The Best Buy Yet
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For someone who appreciates flora and fauna AND good books - This is a fantastic buy. As a relative beginner to the world of fungi, this book ticks all the boxes for a reference book (so probably a bit big for the field). There are loads of information (basic and advanced) on each fungus and of particular interest to me: The common name of most of the fungi is included. Our fungi have been named with elaborate and humorous names which I find easier to remember than the Latin name. I mainly have a culinary interest in mushrooms and this has great notes on edibility and the fact that you need to know which ones CAN'T be eaten, so congratulations on a truly great piece of work.
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Excellent Photographs
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Roger Phillips is the author of a number of books including ones on Wild Food, Wild Flowers, Trees and Grasses among others. The photographs in this book are of excellent quality and this really is essential, particularly for those who are using the book to identify the edible forms of the mushroom of which there are many more than most people think.
The book differentiates quite clearly between those fungi that are edible and those that are not. It also gives the medicinal properties of many of them. I enjoy spotting different ones when I am out walking but I prefer to err on the side of caution and buy mine from the supermarket. However I do know that in France they are much more adventurous regarding their eating of fungi and good luck to them.
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Now the best guide available to British fungi
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I bought Phillips' pioneering "Mushrooms and Other Fungi of Great Britain and Europe" when it came out in the early 1980s for identifying British fungi. At the time it was revolutionary in the use of photographs that allowed the author to depict mushrooms much more accurately than the paintings of earlier guides. Until recently, it was still one of the top field guides to this region (also check Courtecuisse & Duhem, and Jordan [ISBN 0002200252]). I still use this volume a lot for identifying American fungi, both in the tropics and northward. Although I have over 200 field guides of different sorts on my shelves this remains one of my all time favourites.
This current book, Mushrooms (ISBN 0330442376), supersedes the older Phillips guide. It follows the format of the original book quite closely, but is now slightly smaller to make it more of a field guide - about the same size as Skinner's "Moths of the British Isles" (ISBN 0670803545) and, although still won't fit into a pocket, it is much more manageable than the older A4-sized book. There are 1,250 photographs, all of the excellent quality one associates with the author. Some 200 extra species are treated. Taxonomy and text has been brought up to date and into line with the standard taxonomy and nomenclature of lists published by the British Mycological Society.
If you're interested in fungi, don't hesitate - this book must be on your shelves. When you consider how much work went into this project, this represents tremendous value for money.
Chris Sharpe, 8 September 2006. ISBN: 0330442376
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Magic
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Roger Phillips has produced an invaluable guide to the mushrooms we find here in Britain and to what we can practically do with them. Many are edible and most have at least some sort of medicinal purpose, even if that's only to numb the pain of everyday life for an hour or two. A month or so ago, one of my work colleagues was certain he'd seen some Amanita Muscaria growing on a rooftop opposite the office. At lunchtime he managed to get onto the roof and we watched as he edged round the corner of the water tank on all fours, seemingly oblivious to the danger. Closer and closer he got, crawling along a narrow ledge until he reached the mushrooms. We were at once impressed and astonished. However, much to his chagrin, closer inspection of the mushrooms showed that they were in fact toadstools. This revelation seemed to shatter his cloak of bravery somewhat and he suddenly realised where he was and what he was doing. Rather embarrassingly, given the audience that had gathered in our office, he started to cry and call out for his mother. To cut a long story short, he had to be rescued by the fire brigade and has been pretty sheepish since. Anyway, this tale, and Phillips' book, shows that mushrooms can be found just about anywhere and that as a damp and dark island, we're jam-packed with them.
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