Nicholas Evans In Hospital Because of Mushroom Poisoning

Posted on September 2, 2008

Nicholas Evans, bestselling author of The Horse Whisperer, is in the hospital for a bad case of mushroom poisoning. He and his family picked and ate the poisonous mushrooms while vacationing in Scotland.

The 58-year-old Evans, his wife, her sister and the sister's husband became sick after cooking and eating the mushrooms – which included the highly toxic variety Cortinarius speciosissimus — which they had picked in the woods August 23. Cortinarius speciosissimus is known to attack the kidneys.
All four had received dialysis treatment at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and are responding well, the AP reports. Evans' 1995 novel about a trainer's rapport with a wounded, traumatized horse was made into a 1998 film, directed by Robert Redford and starring Scarlett Johansson.

How absolutely awful. We were told all during our childhoods never to eat mushrooms that we picked ourselves, because many of them were poisonous and could kill us. We dutifully followed this oft-repeated advice, but until now we really hadn't heard of a serious case of accidental mushroom self-poisoning. We wish the Evans family a speedy recovery.