he beat danny talbot on the line. talbot also qualified at some big names struggled, including adam gemili, who was sixth. a lee doran secured her spot in london with a co mforta ble secured her spot in london with a comfortable victory in the 400 metre hurdles. that time was a second slower than her run in lille. that was fairly rubbish from my point of view, it was just really message if i kind of lost my stride pattern for the last hundred. but the job today was to win. i really need to sort that race out if i want to contend with these girls. and there was a really impressive run from matthew hudson—smith in the 400 metres. his winning time was rounded down because of a headwind. , though. use of finished second. englishman tom e—fit, who was in contention at the

us open not long ago, has today won the open de france. the finish is one shot clear of the american peter uihlein. it is his second victory of the season, after he triumphed in abu dhabi. the confederations cup final is under way in st petersburg, and chile started well against germany and were controlling the match until this mistake let in lars stindl to score. that is the score, just ten minutes from half—time. the salford red devils are now in second in the super league after beating huddersfield giants. and champions wigan, who by their usual standards, have been having a poor season, beat widnes 28—12, to end an eight—game run without a win in super league.

an australian former schoolteacher, jeff horn, has stand the boxing world by defeating former world champion manny pacquiao. after an incredible 12 rounds which included eight cuts to both fighters, jeff horn won on points to secure the wbo title. they were celebrating in front of 50,000 fans in brisbane. but the future of pacquiao looks a lot less certain. that's the sport for now. more on the bbc news channel throughout the evening. it is now time for meteor vergne. —— it is now time for meteor vergne. —— it is now time for meteor vergne. —— it is now time for meet the author. the irish writer paula mcgrath‘s novel, a history of running away, is about three women separated by time and place, who are all trying to escape the circumstances of their lives. they're all connected although we don't know how at the start of the book and their stories are about a society that seems to thwart them at every turn,

but then perhaps begins to offer something different, and something hopeful. welcome. what fascinated you about these three women who are apart but connected 7 i began with jasmine, who's our 1980s character who decides that she wants to box. which wasn't allowed at that time for women. that's right, yes, which i didn't realise initially. i had an image of a character, which is unusual for me because usually i forget to write what they look like at all. but this character was extremely vivid to me. she had... she was the 1980s rural only goth in the village so i knew my setting would be ‘80s,

and i knew it was rural ireland to begin with. she runs away from home because she wants to join legs & co initially, but the bbc gave her short shrift and she ends up back in dublin and discovers boxing. at the time i was starting to think about this novel in the beginning, i was fascinated by katie taylor, the irish boxer. she was fighting for olympic gold, and there was something about the fact boxing had been illegal and now she was winning a gold medal. did you have any feelings about women's boxing? not really, it wasn't something i wanted to do. i had one attempt at kick boxing and fell out of the gym. it was very strenuous so i had no objection but no real interest myself. so let's talk about the other two principal characters, since we have started off with jasmine. jasmine led me back to her mother's story, and through her to ali, who is a recently orphaned teenager who was running away

from her grandparents — grandparents that she didn't know until recently she has. she's in maryland in the states and it's not clear what the connection is between the characters to the reader at this point. the other narrator is a gynaecologist in present—day dublin and she's increasingly frustrated with her working conditions. so, they are all imprisoned in different ways? yes, you could say that. they feel the need to run. in any case, they all run, and injasmine's case she runs away twice. i suppose we have our fight or flight options and they go for flight each time. the gynaecologist is on the brink, she is trying to decide whether to stay. they have all got great difficulties either because of intimate relationships, work, family or by the social pressures around them, and they seem to be trying to escape. but there's a feeling in the book that things in that respect may be getting better.

is that how you feel? i did feel that from looking at the boxing story certainly, things were getting better. 0bviously, katie taylor is a shining example of why women should be allowed to decide whether or not they want to box. it's not for everybody, but there were and still are other things that women can't do, that they're not allowed to decide for themselves. and i don't feel that that's getting better. it needs to change, but there was an anger underlying the writing of the book. it was inescapable for me, and i think for many, to think you are living at home in ireland in a society which has changed radically really in the last, even the last decade. the country has gone through an economic crash, a recovery, and now seems to be booming again. it has a sort of irrepressible self—confidence about it. you've lived through a very dramatic period in the history of ireland, haven't you?

yes, starting from the ‘80s, i came to dublin to college in the ‘80s and it feels to me that we've come, in a way, almost a full circle, a second recession. going back to the abortion referendum again, it happened in the early ‘80s, and yet we're back again in 2014, 2016, 2017, and there's fresh new scandals. so, although ireland has come a long way, the hold of the catholic church has been broken to some extent, i think the effects of that have yet to be felt, for women at any rate. for anybody who talks to people about these events, you realise how profound the change has been, how profound the questioning is of the kinds of assumptions there were in the generation before yours. i mean, the society is a much more mobile, open one than it's ever been before in modern times.

yes, and i tried with the book to show, and i think this is why i ended up with three different narrators and brought them together, just to show that the underlying theme that the irish state's relationship with women's bodies has been... difficult i suppose, historically, and still is but things have changed. so back in the ‘50s we had mother baby homes, then we had this abortion referendum, and now we have katie taylor winning gold, but we still have to go to the next stage. it's no coincidence that one of the main characters is a gynaecologist. no, coincidence, no! and her mother is a boxer. 0bviously there's a mystery involved in the story, a set of mysteries, but it's not a tease for the reader. i mean, it's really a story that's meant to have you thinking about their characters and their difficulties and how they cope with them, isn't it?

that's really what drives you. yes, it's the characters, each of them at their own stage, trying to figure out where they are in their lives and what they want and who they are in a way, as they also gradually come to discover or the reader comes to discover who they are. irish writing is in such a healthy state — there are young novelists, young poets, young storytellers in ireland, which is, you know, is a small country. the rich literary tradition really is still alive, isn't it? very much so. yes. are you conscious of that? i am conscious of it. there's a lot of support out there. tax breaks and vibrant literary journals. i think literature is something we take seriously. i'm not too sure why, whether it's economic or whatever — it's pretty cheap to sit down and write! i think these tax breaks don't really cost the government very much but they do kind of foster a community. but when you say you don't know why, i think that if you talk to some

of the sort of world—renowned irish writers of today, they all say, look, you know, if you come from the small country that produced joyce and beckett and flann 0'brien, then you really are always conscious, you have got kind of an obligation to these great figures that are standing on your shoulders. yes, they are quite intimidating and for a long time i think i studied literature in college and that's probably why i found it so difficult to get started as a writer... because you were aware of what's behind you! exactly, yeah. where do you think — this is your second novel, generation was the first couple of years ago — where is your writing going to take you, do you think? well, i know where it's taking me at the moment. i'm working on a third novel. what kind of theme has that got? the theme of trauma, if that doesn't sound too off—putting! oh, it's not off—putting.

multiple trauma... you can't have a novel where nothing happens, nothing exciting. no, and i'm conscious of all of what might have become cliches of irish writing. i don't want the child abuse story, i want multiple traumas that can be read that are palatable to the reader, so that's what i'm working on. and avoiding the irish cliche. trying hard! paula mcgrath, thank you very much indeed. thank you. time we are dated you on the weather prospects for the next few days across the british isles. what a superb at all. this is from one of our weather watchers, in debuchy. the week ahead, can we keep that sort of thing going? no, of course we can't. there will be rained for

some, and then later in the week, especially in the south, it will turn really quite warm and muggy. in some areas, it really was a taste of summer some areas, it really was a taste of summer today. but on the western side of scotland, it looked a lot more like that. that all came from a weather front which overnight will be bringing its reign to the north—west of england, and through wales. following on behind, somewhat clearer skies. this is how we shape up clearer skies. this is how we shape up through monday. i think that weather front brings quite a bit of cloud into the southern half of the british isles. may be a passing shower elsewhere. 0n the grand scale, it is not really a bad day. that's monday. and then, joint to

that weather front, what we will call tuesday's weather, already beginning to show signs of developing out in the atlantic. the rain is extending across northern ireland and into scotland. to the north of that, bright enough. to the south of it, where the sunshine pops through, it will be like summer. getting towards the middle part of the week, that frontal system moves away, but leaves a legacy of cloud across the borders of scotland. to the south of it, things really beginning to warm up. cooler to the north of that cloudy zone. come thursday, the humid air might be beginning to trigger some thunderstorms. this is bbc news.

the headlines at 8pm: the environment secretary, michael gove suggests the government could support a lifting of the i% pay cap for public sector workers. italy calls on other european countries to let in rescue ships after more than 80,000 migrants arrive at its shores since the start of the year. plans to restrict foreign fishing boats' access to british waters as the government prepares to pull out of a key agreement. gatwick airport has confirmed that some flights have been disrupted this evening by a drone in the area. also in the next hour, stephen hawking takes donald trump to task over climate change. he warns the president's decision to pull out of the paris accord could lead to global warming becoming irreversible. wimbledon fans soak—up the sun as they set—up camp