T is, according to James Mason’s handsomely hirsute Captain Nemo in the cinematic version of, ‘the most tenacious of all sea beasts’. And one to avoid at all costs. As a rubbery appendage snakes menacingly through the door of, he warns his crew to ‘stay clear of the tentacles. They’ll seize anything within reach and hang on until the death’. But, where once this giant squid had me hiding behind the sofa (it seemed a staple of Sunday-afternoon television), I now think only of lunch. And battered
