Celebrity Mound

Nicholas Evans, author of the best-selling 1995 novel The Horse Whisperer, is ill after eating 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.

(source)