The "The Woman Who Loved an Octopus" is an inspired collection of stories, based on the lives and legends of thirteen Celtic women saints from the first millennium. The legends, some well-known, others almost forgotten, are told in a clear, assertive and memorable way. These stories are not historical tracts or faithful retellings: often Herrad selects elements of a myth as the framework within which to construct a new story, flooding the old with a fresh or rediscovered meaning. Roughly half are set in the present, the rest in the saint's time, a mix that frees the narratives from anachronism by faithfulness to the spirit of the original. They revive an early world of saints often far from 'saintly' by current definitions. Nor are they archetypal, ranging from a 'God's strongest woman' circus act to a Marian evangelist, teenagers leaving home, or girls escaping marriage, rape, death, self-harm, or the life of a nun. Herrad intently and imaginatively explores the interface between the physical, sexual, spiritual and mystical, in ancient and modern worlds. Her saints, often in flight from persecution, closely inhabit the world of nature.
And her retellings often reclaim women seen as victims and martyrs, as strong survivors - as indicated by their status as saints. Her contemporary interpretations are hugely inventive. Some follow the original legends, as with Madrun, the daughter of King Gwyrtheryn, who apparently invited the Saxons into Britain to the Picts. This transmutes into a story of escape from an eastern European war zone. Others stories are more free: St Non was raped in legend and expelled form her convent for 'sexual incontinence'. She later founded convents, but in Herrad's version the 'victim' extracts a physical rather than spiritual revenge.

From the sensuous sea to flight from the world, The Woman who Loved an Octopus is an inspired collection of twelve themed short stories, based on the lives and legends of thirteen Celtic women saints from the first millennium.

Retelling their stories in an intimate, contemporary, sometimes startling fashion, Imogen Rhia Herrad has created a new vision of these women, who were perhaps far from 'saintly' by current definition. Some – Non, Winifred, Tydfil – are relatively well known, while others are almost forgotten.

Their tales reveal a strength and inner freedom in those more usually seen as victims and martyrs. Herrad explores intently and imaginatively the crossover between the physical, sexual, spiritual and mystical in the ancient and modern worlds she visits. The stories tell of refugees, circus acts, rape, love, death and miracles, while her saints also inhabit the natural world of streams, islands and birds.

"Forget the airbrushed, perma-tanned, size zero saccharine celebrity 'role models' gracing the covers of all the glossy magazines today. Imogen Herrad has delved back to tales to Celtic Saints of the fifth and sixth centuries to find some real women to look up to… It is when Herrad transposes her tales to the contemporary world that the full force of her talent becomes apparent… we find that sometimes Herrad roars and sometimes she has a quiet word in your ear, but mostly, as with good music, she sounds better with the volume turned up to eleven"
Susie Wild, New Welsh Review

"This is not a book of historical tracts or faithful retellings: hugely inventive, Herrad's stories flood old tales with fresh, or rediscovered meaning... An inspired idea, carried off with intelligence and grace."
Tessa Hadley

"What we encounter in Herrad's work is a spectacular commingling of mystical and contemporary worlds, a hunger for the absence and silence within and a determination to celebrate the omnipresence of these women who haunt, cohere and inspire us."
Menna Elfyn

Imogen Rhia Herrad is a freelance writer and broadcaster. Born and brought up in Germany, she has also lived in Wales (where she learnt Welsh) and in Argentina, and currently divides her time between London and Berlin.