'A celebrity? Only if you like niche math videos on the internet': Hannah Fry on cancer, Covid and the science of love

Even before becoming a mathematician, Hannah Fry had tried to live her life according to logic. Her most memorable fight with her sister when they were teenagers was over "the optimal way" to get home. She used to say that if there was a nutritionally complete pill to replace food, she would take it.

She even came up with a plan of "mathematically informed" table for her wedding. , determining factors such as age, political beliefs and expected alcohol consumption in deciding which guests should share a table.

Numbers have always brought Fry clarity, a sense of control, even comfort. Then, in January of last year, she discovered that the statistics were working against her. A routine smear, followed by a biopsy, had confirmed cervical cancer. She was 36 at the time and had two young daughters.

The day of her diagnosis was a "total out-of-body experience," Fry says. She would have to wait for the results of the crucial tests, showing if the cancer had spread. In the meantime, she had an essay due to The New Yorker - "literally that night".

Fry recalls an intense evening, "sitting on my bed, really drinking a lot, crying and writing." What was the essay about, I ask? Fry laughs. "It was about the limits of what the data can tell us."

As a writer, broadcaster, speaker and presenter, Fry has made his career demystifying numbers and data so they can be used in society and in our daily lives. In this field, however, his interests are vast and seemingly limitless - and often ahead of the curve. type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" class="dcr-eiqqge">

As a regular presenter of documentaries for t...