Product Description

The culmination of over thirty years' work, this authoritative and superbly illustrated reference work is packed with the most up-to-date information and original photographs. Set to become the essential illustrated mycological encyclopedia for the next 25 years, this book is also clear, user friendly and will appeal to a wide range of readers. Unsurpassed in both illustrative and descriptive detail, "Mushrooms" contains over 1,250 photographs, often showing the specimens in various stages of growth, and including all the latest botanical and common names as well as current ecological information on endangered species. Having sold more than 750,000 copies in Europe of his previous title on mushrooms, Roger Phillips' new book once again sets the benchmark. Quite simply, nobody with an interest in the subject can afford to be without this book. 'Roger Phillips has written the best mushroom book I know: the sublime taxonomic accuracy of his descriptions and photographs, combined with an evangelical and infectious passion for the subject, will make an instant mycophile of anyone who picks it up.' - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. 'A masterpiece of identification.' - David Bellamy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10328 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Jackie Foottit Hull Daily Mail Jackie Foottit, Hull Daily Mail
'Classy book...An unsurpassed reference guide.'

Country Smallholding
'sets the benchmark for works of mushroom identification...the
essential encyclopedia for mushroom hunters and anyone interested in the
subject.’

The London Review of Books
'To call it the mushroomers' bible is to understate the reverence
enthusiasts have for it...'

Customer Reviews

The Best Buy Yet
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.

Now the best guide available to British fungi
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

If you only buy one field ID book, get this one.
Like many people, the original edition of this book was my first field ID book on fungi. Being so familiar with it's structure, it is really easy for me to locate something I've found in Roger Phillips' book. The simple key at the beginning usually gets you straight to the right section of the book to identify your mushroom. Happily for me, the structure of the original is preserved in this new edition.

As I have progressed with my mycophilia over the years I have acquired most of the readily available field guides on the market. This is the inevitable curse of the mushroom hunter. There are always a number of species covered in each new guide that do not appear in the others. I am always seeking the one perfect field guide. The truth is, you often need to check a particular specimen in several, but I always come back to the Phillips.

The key to this book's success must be the consistently high quality of the photographs. He is a fantastic photographer and despite (or perhaps because of)his insistence on removing the specimens to a studio, these images capture accurately the essential details of each species. Compare the perhaps more erudite Encyclopedia by M. Jordan, where each example is photographed in situ; I find I am often hardly able to recognise the fungus in front of me from the image captured in the shifting natural light of Jordan's less adept photography. Phillips maintains his attention to quality images in this new edition, with many new entries to the guide.

Hats off to this most excellent of mushroom books and its author.

P.S. If there is one perfect book on fungi ID, relevant to the UK, then J.Breitenbach and F.Kranzlin "Fungi of Switzerland" would be the one. However, this is now in 6 weighty tomes at about £90 a volume. Not exactly a portable field guide then.