Don’t judge this book by its cover. Don’t glance at the photo of the babe on the beach and think this is somebody you’d like to meet . . .

“Corrrr, she’s lovely!”

. . . or have ever met before. Tanya Streeter is much more than the pretty face she appears. And it wouldn’t be wise, either, to jump to conclusions about her sport. “You get to spit on your mask and pee in your wetsuit, and there’s nearly always snot hanging out of your nose,” she smiles. And that’s just for starters.

BUT WHERE exactly is the start? How do you explain Tanya Streeter? Where do you begin the tale of the only woman ever to have bettered a male world record in sport? How do you explain the blindness of her faith or the obsession that drives her deeper? Where do you begin? Perhaps by plunging into the abyss to explore that place to which she descends: a place deeper in the ocean than the graveyard of the Kursk nuclear submarine, where it’s cold and dark as a dungeon and she can’t see or breathe or speak or smell . . .

Why would anybody want to go there? Or maybe we could focus on the pain she has to endure. Her heart rate slowing to 15 beats a minute . . . her rib cage compressing from the pressure of the water . . . her lungs shrivelling from inflated balloons to the size of wrinkled potatoes . . . her ears burning as if they’ve just been skewered by red-hot pokers . . .

Why would anybody want to do that? No, better to stay with Beauty before she becomes the Beast and join her as she charms David Letterman on his Late Show . . .

Letterman: I must admit my ignorance. I guess I have heard before about people diving for fish, people diving for coins off ships, people diving for pearls and oysters and that kind of thing, and that’s sort of the origin of this sport. Is that correct?

Streeter: Absolutely, it is, yes.

Letterman: And how did you get interested in it and why are you so good at it?

Streeter: Well, I got interested in it because I love the ocean and because I am a . . . naturally an athlete and very, very competitive and . . . you know, I don’t think I’m necessarily that good at it. Human beings are designed to be able to hold their breath under water, and having evolved from marine mammals, it’s entirely natural for us to be able to withstand the pressure.

Letterman: So you’re saying we could all do what you do? Really?

Streeter: I really am, yeah.

She’s not that good at it. There’s some dolphin in us all. This is what she would have us believe.