Bookends: Deeply peculiar

The kraken legend is often said to have been inspired by real sightings of giant squid, and this is why Wendy Williams in her Kraken: The Curious, Exciting and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid (Abrams, £12.99) has chosen this as a title for her book.

Below the thunders of the upper deep,

Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,

His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep

The Kraken sleepeth . . .

wrote Tennyson in his sonnet about the gigantic sea monsters of Viking myth. The kraken legend is often said to have been inspired by real sightings of giant squid, and this is why Wendy Williams in her Kraken: The Curious, Exciting and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid (Abrams, £12.99) has chosen this as a title for her book. But there was no need for such a theatrical title. The truth about real squids turns out to be genuinely fascinating.

Many of the larger squid species are creatures of the deep and were little known until recently. The existence of the largest, the colossal squid, was only confirmed in 2003, while even the better known giant squid was only filmed live in the wild for the first time in 2004. But as scientists get to know squid better, they are finding out just what extraordinary creatures they are.

They are finding, too, what squid can teach us about ourselves. The huge nerve cells of squids, for instance – uniquely visible to the naked eye – provide the perfect training ground for would-be neurosurgeons, and squid neurons have taught us much of what we know about how our own work.

Kraken is a little rambling in structure, but on the whole Williams is a fine writer and takes us on an engaging and informative journey through the world of cephalopod science, introducing us not just to the squid themselves, but to many of the scientists who study them.