Skip to main content
Squid
In search of answers to what makes the mysterious cephalopod tick
STUFF OF NIGHTMARES: A kraken attacking a merchant ship, 1810, by Pierre Denys de Montfort

REAKTION Books has carved out a niche in the market with its fascinating animal series. Since launching some 20 years ago, it’s applied a natural sciences and humanities approach to explore everything from elephants to ants, looking at how the species have been impacted by humans around the world. It’s a method that’s continued by Martin Wallen in Squid.

He brings an academic lens to the subject, tracing the deep-sea terror of kraken mythology through to the contemporary scientific understanding of the cephalopod, two perspectives brought together by an exploration of how they’re represented in art and literature.

Supported by intriguing titbits of information about their biology, Wallen frequently stresses the “unknowability” of squid to science — their oesophagus passes through their brain, their movement and vision are simultaneous kinetically and their eating habits are fearsome — they “prey on almost anything that does not eat them first.” This unknowability inspires fear in the way they could prosper at the expense of humans.

Take out shares in the People's Press
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Jonathan Hanks in A Christmas Carol
Theatre Review / 23 December 2024
23 December 2024
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys, with minor reservations, the Northern Ballet’s revival of its 1992 classic
Tristan Sturrock and Katy Owen in Emma Rice’s Blue Beard
Theatre review / 6 March 2024
6 March 2024
SUSAN DARLINGTON revels in an exhilarating adaptation of the gruesome fairytale that invokes the real-life horror of women lost to male violence
(L to R) Eddie Ahrens, Rachel Hammond, Hannah Baker and Harv
Theatre Review / 23 May 2023
23 May 2023
SUSAN DARLINGTON is disappointed by a show that aims to highlight misogyny within the police but fails to arrest the audience's attention
Brett Anderson of Suede
Gig Review / 10 April 2023
10 April 2023
SUSAN DARLINGTON revels in a band that know their own continuing relevance
Similar stories
SCIENCE AND SOCIETY / 22 April 2025
22 April 2025

Science has always been mixed up with money and power, but as a decorative facade for megayachts, it risks leaving reality behind altogether, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

Omar Badsha, Funeral of Stembiso Nzuza and Moses Ramatlotlo,
Book Review / 22 March 2025
22 March 2025
BOB NEWLAND recommends an outstanding study of how images have shaped narratives of identity, resistance and power in South Africa
A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS: (L to R) Church of St Mary Magdalene
Books / 13 March 2025
13 March 2025
WILL PODMORE recommends an excellent and useful introduction to a lesser-known giant of the scientific revolution in Britain
The cover of The World's Comics 1, July 6 1892
Books / 27 September 2024
27 September 2024
STEVE ANDREW relishes a survey that sets the genre within a wider social, cultural and political context