I love this book, its masterful blend of natural history, philosophy, and wonder … It’s a captivating story, and Peter Godfrey-Smith brings it alive in vivid, elegant prose … A must-read for anyone interested in the evolution of the mind - ours and the very other, but equally sentient, minds of the cephalopods.

And even though the answer to this question is yes, octopuses could bite you, you’ll soon learn that they usually won’t (unless you’re their prey, of course!I wrote a memoir for an Iranian child soldier, a memoir about my childhood beekeeping with my grandfather in Big Sur, and it was only a matter of time before I turned to my dog for inspiration. She grew up in Sheffield, and has spent time living and working in various parts of the UK, as far afield as Aberystwyth, Newcastle upon Tyne, Grasmere and Oxford.

She was recently widowed and also still mourns the loss of her son, who disappeared into the Puget Sound some years ago. View image in fullscreen More like us than our hubris allows … an octopus in an aquarium in Timmendorfer Strand, Germany. At face value, an entertaining and pleasant read, and at a deeper level, extremely thought-provoking. Wondering if he is “entirely real in their watery world”, and not “one of those ghosts who does not realise they are a ghost”, the author hypothesises that this “chromatic chatter” is a subtle kind of communication.This is one of those books that I almost wish I’d written, except no one but Nayler could have done it justice.