A free-diving engineer repairs the undersea cables that carry data around our hyperconnected planet, in this intense maritime story with echoes of Heart of Darkness

Colum McCann’s breakthrough 2009 novel, Let the Great World Spin, was set on the day in 1974 when the acrobat Philippe Petit walked across a high wire strung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. McCann’s bravura account of the wire-walk forms the centrepiece of that novel, which relates the interlocking lives of different New Yorkers who are touched by Petit’s thrilling but benign assault on the Manhattan skyline.

In his new novel, Twist, McCann is drawn to another type of wire and another obsessive, boundary-pushing hero. The wires, this time, are the undersea cables that carry data around our hyperconnected planet. And the hero, John Conway, is an engineer and free diver who travels the world, repairing them when they break.

A free-diving engineer repairs the undersea cables that carry data around our hyperconnected planet, in this intense maritime story with echoes of Heart of Darkness

Colum McCann’s breakthrough 2009 novel, Let the Great World Spin, was set on the day in 1974 when the acrobat Philippe Petit walked across a high wire strung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. McCann’s bravura account of the wire-walk forms the centrepiece of that novel, which relates the interlocking lives of different New Yorkers who are touched by Petit’s thrilling but benign assault on the Manhattan skyline.

In his new novel, Twist, McCann is drawn to another type of wire and another obsessive, boundary-pushing hero. The wires, this time, are the undersea cables that carry data around our hyperconnected planet. And the hero, John Conway, is an engineer and free diver who travels the world, repairing them when they break.

• Denver beat Phoenix 149-141 in OT behind Jokić
• Nuggets star posts first 30-20-20 stat line in history

Nikola Jokić produced 31 points, a career-high 22 assists and 21 rebounds as the host Denver Nuggets rallied after losing a 21-point lead and beat the Phoenix Suns 149-141 in overtime on Friday.

Jokić logged the first 30-20-20 stat line in NBA history. He notched his 29th triple-double of the season and 159th of his career with a rebound less than two minutes into the second half.

She’s the chatty daytime presenter with a nice line in withering putdowns. But as a judge once ruled, that’s just a role she performs. So who is the real Lorraine Kelly?

Lorraine Kelly opens the front door with a huge smile. “You interviewed me, years ago, d’you remember?” Now she looks disappointed. “Ach, you don’t, do you?” Of course I remember. And she’s hardly changed. I’ve brought a photo of us on the GMTV sofa to show her. Back then, she’d just turned 40, was a staple of breakfast telly and was about to launch her own show; a household name, if not quite the mononym she is today. Now she’s 65, her show is still on ITV five mornings a week, and last year she was awarded a lifetime achievement Bafta. Oh, and she’s just reinvented herself as a bestselling novelist. The Island Swimmer, which reached No 2 in the Sunday Times hardback fiction charts, is about to come out in paperback.

“So how’ve you been?” she asks. Kelly is the kind of person who you can pick up with where you left off a quarter of a century ago. She’s also the kind of person you feel you know, even when you don’t. Perhaps that’s been her great gift as a TV presenter. She was a good journalist as Scotland correspondent for TV-am but not outstanding. She’s a decent interviewer, but she won’t be remembered for her incisive interrogations or scoops. What she is brilliant at, though, is being Lorraine – warm, likable, nosy, funny, occasionally steely and sharp-tongued, sometimes potty-mouthed and always 100% herself. Which is why it was a shock in 2019 when she told a tax court that the Lorraine on TV is different from the real Lorraine; that on television she performs the role “of a friendly, chatty and fun personality”.

With volcanic peaks, wild flowers and hot springs, the Cantal region is the perfect destination for a springtime road trip

Getting away from it all is surely the idea behind every holiday, yet as I drive through undulating countryside towards the village of Salers in France’s Massif Central, I wonder whether I’ve ever felt quite so away from everything.

This is the appeal of the Cantal, the rural heartland of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, in which the Massif Central is nestled. If you continue east from the Dordogne and Lot, you’ll discover a land of volcanic peaks, hot springs and welcoming auberges in one of France’s least populated departments. And, as I learn, it makes for a refreshingly different destination for a springtime road trip. The snow lingers on those peaks until early April, but I’m here in early May and the meadows abound in an extraordinary display of wildflowers, such as arnica, narcissi, orchids and myriad other species that thrive in that volcanic soil. The landscape is one of the most richly biodiverse in Europe.