MARGOT FONTEYN Hardcover - 2004

by Meredith Daneman

The legend of Margot Fonteyn has touched every ballet dancer who has come after her, and her genius endures in the memory of anyone who saw her dance. Yet until now, the complete story of her life has remained untold. Meredith Daneman, a novelist and former dancer, reveals the fascinating story of Peggy Hookham, a little girl from suburban England, who grew up to become a Dame of the British Empire and the most famous ballerina in the world.

This completely riveting and definitive biography chronicles Fonteyn's early years and her intense connection to her mother, the 'Black Queen'; her loves in bohemian thirties and forties London; her relationship with her balletic Svengali, Frederick Ashton; her conquest of New York with the Sadler's Wells Ballet; and her final years in Panama with her husband, Roberto Arias. Daneman reflects on Fonteyn's 'lyricism and limpid purity of line, so potent with theatrical moment that even film cannot capture it' and the world of ballet from the birth of the British Royal Ballet to Rudolf Nureyev, her final partner and rumored lover.

Balletomanes and readers of biography alike will applaud Daneman's vivid, insightful, and highly entertaining work. Based on more than ten years of research and lavishly illustrated with beautiful and evocative photographs, Margot Fonteyn is an exquisite biography that is supremely worthy of its alluring subject.