Robert Vennell is the author of the bestselling The Meaning of Trees: The history and use of New Zealand’s native plants, and Secrets of the Sea: The story of New Zealand’s native sea creatures. His most recent book, The Forgotten Forest: in search of the lost plants and fungi of Aotearoa, takes the reader on a journey to uncover the hidden and overlooked species of the forest, and to explore our native mushrooms, mosses and moulds. In his day job Robert works as a curator at Tāmaki Paenga Hira, Auckland War Memorial Museum, where he is part of the team developing new natural science galleries.