Cassie McCullough

Mike, hello.

Well, hang on to that belief.

It was actually a very inspirational series, I've got to say.

Now, you're the second guest we've had in a very short time who's read a book for us but is also juggling a four-week-old baby.

Congratulations.

I'm just trying to do the math.

So how many minutes did you spend with each person?

We've talked about this before here on the bookshelf, but it does seem to be the year or maybe a couple of years of the cephalopod.

There are books and movies and documentaries.

So before we get to the octopus man, Chrissie Neen, why do you think octopuses are so fascinating for writers and artists and everybody else?

Yeah.

I fell in love during art history at school with the Minoan, the Crete octopus vases and amphorae, the beautiful round clay ceramic vases with tentacles and octopus.

They must have worshipped octopuses, I think.

Beautiful creatures.

Yeah.

Well, before we get to that, Chrissie, didn't you have an octopus in one of your books and a erotic encounter?

I love it.

Well, let's see where we get with this book.

So it's called The Octopus Man.

It's the second novel of English writer Jasper Gibson, who, by the way, is the co-founder of the online comedy site The Poke in the UK.