Volume 1 illustrates the non-agarics including, puffballs, stinkhorns, earthstars, coral fungi, polypores, crust fungi, chanterelles, tooth fungi, boletes, Russula and Lactarius, a total of 650 species illustrated via watercolour paintings plus drawings of the spores of every species and any other useful microscopic features as well as chemical spot-tests.
After selling out the prints run of the second edition, the author decided to print the third edition. Note that for this third edition the changes are mostly limited to moving species into new genera or occasionally the species changes name completely, plus minor corrections (spelling, grammar etc). There are no new species or pictures in the book.
"There are already several field guides to mushrooms and toadstools covering a wide range of species and based either on photographs or on artwork. Why add to the pile? I can suggest two reasons. The first is that none of these guides is perfect; the best in my view was the one by Marcel Bon, which is out of print. The other reason is that this guide is very nearly perfect. It is by Geoffrey Kibby, who is probably our most experienced and dedicated field mycologist. He is the editor of Field Mycology; the author of an excellent series of illustrated monographs on British mushrooms and toadstools; experienced leader of field trips and courses; and he is, moreover, an artist of talent. [...] Kibby knows his stuff. This is a field guide on which you can rely [...] This is [...] a guide for the serious field mycologist who already has a basic working knowledge and some microscope experience. It may well turn out to be the best printed field guide in English that we shall ever see; certainly, it is the best up to now. [...]"
– Peter Marren, British Wildlife 29(1), October 2017