Press

** Sunday Times bestseller ** New York Times bestseller ** Royal Society Science Book Prize Winner ** Wainwright Prize Winner ** BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week ** British Book Awards Shortlist ** Royal Society Science Book Prize Shortlist ** Rathbones Folio Prize Longlist ** Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist ** Taiwan Openbook Award Winner ** Nautilus Book Awards Grand Award Winner ** Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries Literature Award Winner ** Guild of Food Writers First Book Award Winner ** Lithuanian Translated Book of the Year ** Groenveld Award Winner (NL) ** Richard Jeffries Society Literary Prize Shortlist ** André Simon Award Longlist ** The Times audiobook of the year in the category of 'authors voicing their own work' ** A best book of 2020 as chosen by BBC Science Focus, The Daily Mail, Geographical, Science Friday, TIME magazine, The Times, The Telegraph, Andrew Marr, Sigrid Rausing, Andrew Motion, Tyler Cowen, and Charles Foster, among others. **

Reviews

New York Times_Entangled Life_compressed.jpg — THE NEW YORK TIMES

"[An] ebullient and ambitious exploration… This book may not be a psychedelic… but reading it left me not just moved but altered, eager to disseminate its message of what fungi can do.”

The Guardian_Entangled Life.jpg — The Guardian

“Brilliant… entrancing… when we look closely [at fungi], we meet large, unsettling questions… Sheldrake… carries us easily into these questions with ebullience and precision.”

the wall street Journal

“A gorgeous book of literary nature writing… ripe with insight and erudition… food for the soul.

Time Magazine_Entangled Life.jpg — TIME MAGAZINE

** 100 Must-Read Books of 2020 ** “Wondrous... [A] marvelous tour of these diverse and extraordinary life forms... eye-opening... humans should consider fungi among the greatest of earth’s marvels.”

New Yorker_Entangled Life.jpg — the new yorker

“The more we learn about fungi, Sheldrake observes, the less the natural world makes sense without them.”

Sunday Times_Entangled Life.jpg — The Sunday Times

“Reads like an adventure story… wondrous… beguilingly weaves together lived experience and scientific research.”

Mail on Sunday_Entangled Life.jpg — THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

*FIVE STARS* “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.”

Spectator_Entangled Life.jpg — THE SPECTATOR

“The lives of fungi alone are fascinating, but the questions and wider implications that Sheldrake teases out from them are often truly astounding… an engrossing, captivating journey.”

LRB_Entangled Life.jpg — London REview of Books

“If a fungus were sentient or somehow like a brain, isn’t this perhaps just how it would think – in an entanglement of intimate, sudden, pulsing, fresh connections between the things around it?”

Nature Plants Entangled Life.jpg — NATURE PLANTS

“[Sheldrake's] rich text evokes an understanding of what it would actually be like to be a filamentous microbe... magical... comprehensive and scholarly... accessible and fun... an extraordinary achievement.”

Prospect Magazine_Entangled Life.jpg — PROSPECT MAGAZINE

"Deeply engaging and constantly surprising... The magic of mushrooms is not merely mind-expanding... it might expand the very concept of mind... balanced, well-informed... beautifully written."

Merlin Sheldrake_The Times.jpg — THE TIMES

“[Sheldrake’s] mental and physical involvement in his subject is brought out by his thoughtful, amused narration and allusive, often almost poetic cast of mind.” [AUDIOBOOK OF THE WEEK]

Irish Times_Entangled Life.jpg — The Irish Times

“Expertly explained and easy to read... gorgeous, intelligent, utterly absorbing... Sheldrake’s book stands apart, and does what all the best books do: it expands our world, and makes us look up from the page with renewed wonder.”

New York Review of Books

“After spending long enough in the atmosphere of Sheldrake’s sporulating mind, I began to adopt the fungal perspective. I can’t help now but see something like a mind wherever there might be fungal threads—which is to say everywhere.”

Science

“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.”

Telegraph_Entangled Life.jpg — THE TELEGRAPH

*FIVE STARS* “Mind-boggling... [Sheldrake] is nothing if not a participatory researcher into his subject and one with a winning sense of humour… It’s tempting... to see fungi as the biological model for a better world.”

Merlin Sheldrake New Scientist.jpg — New Scientist

"You may never look at fungi in the same way… Entangled Life is an eye-opening exploration of this mysterious taxonomic kingdom… a journey into an untapped world.”

Daily Mail_Entangled Life.jpg — THe DAILY MAIL

“A captivating trip into the weird and wonderful mycorrhizal world around us – and inside us… full of startling revelations, detailed science and just enough eccentric humour to make it digestible. A joy.”

New Statesman_Entangled Life.jpg — NEW STATESMAN

“A sensory as well as an intellectual pleasure... Accomplished, riveting and surprising... We owe a great debt to Sheldrake for lifting his eyes from the microscope for long enough to enlighten us about the wonders of fungi.”

LARB_Entangled Life.jpg — LA REVIEW OF BOOKS

“Stylistically impressive... Sometimes the scene itself shines with poetry.”

Harper’s Magazine

“An exuberant introduction to the biology, ecology, climatology, and psychopharmacology of the earth’s ‘metabolic wizards.’”

Sydney Morning Herald_Entangled Life.jpg — Sydney Morning Herald

“[Sheldrake] has a talent for threading broad perspectives into a highly lucid prose... while keeping a light and often humorous touch, even when he is at his most profound.”

TLS_Entangled Life.jpg — Times Literary Supplement

“Sheldrake’s research is bang up-to-date… In Entangled Life, he adroitly explores the wonders of this hidden fungal realm… Sheldrake explains the latest discoveries with aplomb.”

Interviews & Profiles

NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE

A vast fungal web braids together life on Earth. Merlin Sheldrake wants to help us see it.

Merlin on BBC BREAKFAST

Merlin talks about the film Fungi: Web of Life on BBC Breakfast, February 2nd 2024.

Merlin addresses parliamentary committee

Merlin gave evidence to the Science , Technology & Innovation Select Committee about the importance of fungi.

Merlin on BBC Radio 3’s Private passions

Merlin talks with Michael Berkeley about fungi and music he loves.

Rick RUBIN & MERLIN IN CONVERSATION

Merlin joined Rick Rubin on his podcast for conversation ranging from ancient alcohol brewing practices to jazz as a metaphor for evolution, and more.

Merlin x Poetry Foundation Podcast

Merlin talks about language, fungi, the symbiotic way of life, arts and sciences, metaphor, creativity in the living world, and more.

Dazed Magazine

“Presented by Merlin Sheldrake, Fungi: Web of Life features jaw-dropping time-lapse footage in which fungi germinate like majestic, otherworldly creatures.”

Merlin on the ‘Good Life Project’ podcast

"Merlin reveals a surreal subterranean cosmos of mycelium underlying life as we know it."

Merlin Radio 4 Book of the Week_compressed.jpg — BBC Radio 4 book of the week

Merlin reads from Entangled Life.

Merlin x Edward St Aubyn

Merlin and Edward speak about metaphor, anecdote, symbiosis, imagination, and psychedelics. Read on LitHub, or listen on the Vintage Books podcast.

StarTalk radio_Merlin Sheldrake.jpg — Merlin x Neil Degrasse Tyson

Can mushrooms take over your mind? On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Matt Kirshen explore the weird world of fungi with Merlin Sheldrake.

The Observer – Merlin and the Magic of Mushrooms

“Wondrous… an astonishing book… It seems somehow to turn the natural world upside down.”

Merlin x David Zilber

“In two live, recorded conversations, Merlin and David range widely across the subjects of fungi, microbes, and fermentation.”

Screenshot+2020-05-14+at+10.49.42.png — Literary Hub – An interview with Robert Macfarlane

“Fungi’s lessons for adapting to life on a damaged planet.”

The+Secrets+of+the+Wood+Wide+Web.jpeg — The New Yorker – The Secrets of the Wood Wide Web

“In London’s Epping Forest, a scientist named Merlin eavesdrops on trees’ underground conversations.”

Merlin_Start the Week.jpg — Merlin on BBC Radio 4: Start the week

Merlin Sheldrake, James Rebanks, and Melissa Harrison discuss the natural world with Andrew Marr.

The+Understory,+an+excerpt+from+Underland.png — Emergence Magazine – The Understory, by Robert Macfarlane

“As Merlin speaks I feel a quick, eerie sense of the world shifting irreversibly around me.”

Merlin Penguin.jpg — Penguin

"Sheldrake who is soft-spoken, tall and slim with a shock of tight curls on his head and a pearl necklace wrapped around his wrist, is utterly at home as he shuffles about this small patch of wilderness”

Der Spiegel_Entangled Life.jpg — DER SPIEGEL – A Conversation with Merlin SHeldrake

“Fungi Can Teach Us a New Way of Looking at the World”

Catapult_Entangled Life.jpg — Catapult – a graphic interview with Wendy Xu

“Merlin’s poetic prose is so visual in the writing that many parts of it reminded me of a graphic novel.”

Merlin Bioneers interview.jpg — Bioneers – an interview with merlin

“Bioneers Senior Producer, J.P. Harpignies, interviewed Merlin about his new, highly acclaimed first book, Entangled Life.”

Entangled Life_Pleurotus.jpg — Merlin On CBC Radio’s Sunday Edition

“Inside the strange and world-changing kingdom of fungi.”

Tank Magazine_Merlin.jpg — TANK MAGAZINE – An interview With Merlin

“Entangled Life charts the foundational role of the fungal kingdom in transforming planetary ecosystems, scientific thinking and human minds.”

FINANCIAL TIMES

“Q&A with the biologist and writer on his grandfather’s pharmacy, the mystery of the afterlife and owning an apple orchard.”

Deutsche Welle_Entangled Life_compressed.jpg — Deutsche welle – video profile

“Not only has British biologist Merlin Sheldrake written a best-selling book about them, but he also grows them, cooks them and uses them for fermentation.”

Scientific American_Merlin interview.jpg — Scientific American – A Mind-bending tour of the fungal world

“Sheldrake answered questions about the nature of intelligence, psychedelic drugs, and creative home brews.”

Merlin Sheldrake_Telegraph.jpg — The TELEGRAPH – MUSHROOMS, MOONSHINE AND PSYCHEDELICS

“Sheldrake's central vision of the interconnectedness of all life-forms feels shiveringly prescient.”