The wolf-fish which grows new teeth every year sea-slugs which form mating chains and curled octopuses which inject poison into crabs to turn

The wolf-fish, which grows new teeth every year, sea-slugs, which form mating chains, and curled octopuses, which inject poison into crabs to turn their insides into soup, can all be seen in the book.As a trained marine biologist, he is a regular diver and underwater photographer during time off from his full-time work as an environmental safety consultant. Dr Naylor, who published the book privately with the help of a friend, has pictured more than 200 of the most common ones.The photographs show the bootlace worm, which can grow to more than 100ft in length, making it Britain’s longest animal. From the snakelocks anemone to the lightbulb sea-squirt, from the candy stripe flatworm to the tompot blenny fish, Dr Naylor’s photographs disclose a world that is intensely colourful not only in the visual sense, but also because of the behaviour of its varied inhabitants.Britain has more than 7,000 species of creatures in the seas around its coasts. In his new book, Great British Marine Animals, Paul Naylor reveals the remarkable specimens living just off our shores and displays them in their full colourful glory.The North Atlantic dull? Never. The astonishing colours – brilliant reds and pinks, vivid emerald greens and sapphire blues, luminous yellows and oranges – are what you would expect to find on the reefs of a tropical ocean.
But this is not the tropics, this is the cold sea around the coast of Britain.

But had it ever occurred to you that this is because they are really spies?Don’t look now, but I think we’ve got a whole new thriller plot here.Thank you, Mr Sumsion
More from Miles Kington. I mean, it’s all very well writing a pot-boiler as a fake front for an intelligence agent masquerading as a writer – but what would happen if the book became a best-seller by accident?And the “writer” had to go on TV to publicise his book?He’d refuse, of course.”I never give interviews,” he would say.You do occasionally come across writers who refuse to give any interviews. Especially as you would have to make sure the book wasn’t very good. And there is something very post-modern or Douglas Adamsish or something in the idea of someone having to write a whole real book to support a fake writer.

I still have no idea why he told me all that – whether it was a little secret he itched to tell someone; whether it was a real idea that had never got off the ground; or whether he was cleverly pulling my leg.True or not, it is an appealing scenario, and I especially like the idea that somebody somewhere actually may have had to get down to producing real books as part of an agent’s front.After all, you need more than a PLR listing to prove you have written a book You really need a physical book as well. I am merely sketching out a situation that would justify me signing the Act.”I didn’t put any of this in the interview, and I only mention it now that his passing reminds me of it. Does this sort of thing happen very often?”"I am not saying it has ever happened. Which would justify me having to sign the Official Secrets Act.”"I see. So I would find myself having to create dossiers of lending and borrowing for books that did not exist and had been invented to protect one of our agents. And they would pretty soon find out that the ‘writer’ had not actually written any books.”"Right…”"Well, to guard against that you would have to invent some books which the ‘writer’ had written Titles, dates of publication, etc And then you would have to register them for PLR.