It started as a bedtime story created for her grandchildren but now a local artist has turned the tale inspired by Swanage Bay and Studland’s beaches into a published children’s book.
Linda Webber from Wareham, penned the book The Cute Green Octopus and the Sparkly Flip Flop for her grandsons, who along with her daughter Emily, are fans of both the seaside and recycling – and then illustrated it when they asked for pictures.

Locations for Linda’s octopus stories include Swanage Bay and Studland
Already writing a second adventure
Now Linda has had her story book published by a Dorset company with green credentials and she is hopeful of a national publisher taking on the story of her underwater, eight-legged recycler.
It is written in rhyming couplets, in the style of children’s author Julia Donaldson, with bright and cheerful illustrations which have gone down a storm with local schools where Linda has become a guest reader.
To make the experience more interactive for her young audiences, Linda has had some prototype toys made up, including an octopus puppet with his own cave – and a collection of shoes.
The response has been so positive that Linda is already writing and painting a second adventure for her cute green octopus, with further stories in development.

Linda’s grandsons and husband Lee all get to feature in the pages of her storybook
“I began to scribble some sketches”
Linda Webber said:
“It all really started with my daughter Emily who is passionate about the environment and especially the ocean. She always reuses as much as she can and buys preloved clothes, she feels that everything is so wasteful.
“She has always loved swimming and surfing in the sea and as a child was so distressed to learn about sea creatures choking on discarded plastics and getting caught up in netting.
“So I started to write a book about recycling for her two children, with just a few lines at first, then expanded on it, then my husband Lee said that the main character could be a green octopus because of the colour’s links with recycling.
“After I read some of it to the grandchildren, they asked me why there were no pictures, so I began to scribble some sketches, but they wanted me to do it properly!”

The storybooks gave Linda a perfect excuse to restart painting
Picking up easel and paints again
Linda took a graphic design and marketing course at Bournemouth University some years ago before working in her parents’ florist business in West Street, Wareham, as well as other florists in Dorchester and Weymouth.
After years raising a family, she was delighted to have a reason to pick up her easel and paints again, and took inspiration for the illustrations from Swanage Bay and the pier along with scenes from Studland, including its famous herd of seahorses.
Although she can only work on the books in her evenings and weekends to fit in with her full time job as a technical support officer, Linda is hoping that interest in the story will grow and give her a chance to see her creation in high street bookshops everywhere.

A glove puppet and an octopus’s garden of shoes help to bring Linda’s storytelling to life
Book carries a Woodland Carbon stamp
Linda Webber said:
“The process of getting a distributor and publisher for an environmentally friendly book is quite difficult, but we are hoping that we can get it out to shops in Dorset, Devon and Somerset, then take it on from there.
“We did consider publishing and selling it through Amazon, but we can’t control the paper they use and don’t want to compromise the message of the book with mass production.
“The book has been printed by Sherrens of Weymouth and carries a Woodland Carbon stamp, which means they print it on paper from a sustainable source, replant trees to keep it carbon neutral and can almost be traced back to where the tree was grown.
“It is a nice release for my artistic side and it is lovely to be able to sit and paint illustrations for my daft story!”

Linda with one of the first sketches for her book
“My daughter was ecstatic”
Linda added:
“My daughter is away working in Canada at the moment, and she was ecstatic when I told her that the story was in print.
“Pictures of the children in my books have been based on my grandchildren – the girl who has her flip flop stolen is my sister in law’s grand-daughter, and my two grandsons are pictured in the second book buying ice creams from a van with my husband Lee.
“My octopus recycles and reuses things he finds in the sea, but especially loves the shoes which he finds and builds up quite a collection – but the one thing he really wants is a sparkly flip flop and is a bit naughty in the way he goes about getting one.
“I originally stopped the story when the octopus went back to his rock with a flip flop he had taken off a girl on the quay, but then I thought he really needed to redeem himself for stealing it.
“I added a part where he saw her standing on the pier and looking sad, so he returned the flip flop to make them both happy!”

Original sketches of Linda’s stories soon became pieces of art
Told in a light hearted way
A second book is close to being finished, in which the octopus sees some boys who pick up litter every time they come to the beach.
The child who collects the most litter gets to choose their ice cream first, before they leave all the litter at a collection point for the recycling centre.
The octopus thinks this is a wonderful idea, so he persuades his friends in the sea to do the same.
Following a request from her grandson, another book is being sketched out featuring a pink dolphin – again, with an ecofriendly environmental message told in a light hearted way.
The Cute Green Octopus and the Sparkly Flip Flop is currently sold at Swanage Pier gift shop, Salt Pig restaurants, at the visitor centre at Lulworth Cove, Blue Pool and at Bare Necessities and Special Days in Wareham, with hopes that the National Trust will also stock it.

The Salt Pig Too in Swanage is one of several shops keen to support a local author and is stocking Linda’s books