Daniel Butler

Daniel Butler, born in 1963, has been writing professionally since 1989. At first he was just a freelance journalist, specialising in rural and environmental features, but he now concentrates on writing books. His books include The Red Tail: sharing the seasons with a hawk (Jonathan Cape, 1994); Urban Dreams, Rural Realities (Simon & Schuster, 1998); How to Plant a Tree (Ivy Press, 2008); Fungi Forays (New Holland, 2012) and A Mushroom is a Misunderstood Rose (Kindle, 2012). He also works as a ghost-writer and is currently working on a book about wood as a non-polluting energy source.

His current projects include leading edible mushroom safaris, restoring a Welsh coastal farmhouse, writing his first novel for children, and training a goshawk. He has also taken on a part-time role as fungal tutor at Aberystwyth University. He lives on a 13-acre smallholding in mid-Wales where he cultivates weeds and despises sheep when not indulging his passions for falconry, fungi and firewood. He has two children, two stepchildren and two energetic piglets.