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.