Traditionally, we Anglo-Saxons have been considered mycophobic. In contrast, the Slavs, Finns and Latins are mycophilic. Without successive waves of immigrants to do our foraging for us, we might never have been aware of the huge reserves of wild mushrooms under our noses.

Here in Britain, in Scotland for the most part, and in the United States, mostly in the north-west, there has been a huge boom in mushroom harvesting. With the worldwide trade in fungi estimated to be in the region of $1 billion, we might all be becoming just a little more mycophilic.