Dancing and death
From our UK edition
I thought at first that this was going to be a truly marvellous book, and in many ways it is, but I soon found that, in common with most modern biographies, it is too long, too detailed and there is too much talk about sex. It is hard to believe that non-professionals want quite so much description of ballets and ballet personalities long departed. Richard Buckle once shouted at Margot Fonteyn at the end of a long party, ‘Are you trying to tell me that ballet is a totally ephemeral art?’ ‘Yes, I am,’ replied Margot firmly. That said, this is a gripping story, and there is not much that one can add to it. Meredith Daneman has left no stone unturned, even those Margot might have preferred to have remained undisturbed.