Customer Reviews
Margot's magic ! - By: DoDo Fan, 14 Jul 2007 
This heavyweight Tome surely must be the definitive biography of Margot Fonteyn. With nearly 700 pages on your lap it is indeed a daunting reading prospect. Fortunately, & unlike many paperbacks, this Penguin edition falls comfortably open - & stays open - almost throughout the entire book.
The book is an excellent read. Well writtenin an easy on the eye style & informativein extremis. I am an 'enjoyer' of the art, a 'watcher' - not a student! And it is indeed wonderful to watch & admire the skill, grace & athleticism of a select number of our fellow travellers on this planet who, when called forin a performance, seem to have developed the ability to defy gravity!
Margot Fonteyn's private life, & there is certainly no shortage of detail here, is interesting of course,and if this book is to be believed, equally as riveting as her public life! But primarily it is her dancing that surely is of most concern. Would she still have become famous given a different background? I daresay!
Margot became pre-eminentin the profession, her fame swept her along wherever she trod - on & off the boards. Will we ever again see a partnership of the likes of Fonteyn/Nureyev? And will Swan Lake ever see a better Odette? My opinions of course, whichin no way diminish my respect & admiration for all who have followedin this demanding role.
Meredith Daneman,a former dancer herself, has written a hugely enjoyable, meticuously researched book thatin my view is unlikely to be bettered. It can be read straight through, or dipped into. The book also has a good selection of photographs.
Fonteyn Shmonteyn...... - By: Caterina Nippon, 25 Nov 2004 Well, who'd have thought Dame Margot was so such an enigma? Here we all are wondering for years if she slept with Nureyev & now it's academic, she slept with practically everyone else, why shouldn't she have slept with Rudi?
Ms Daneman, who studied at the Royal Ballet School, has a distinct advantage, it's like one old Etonian writing about another, rather like Julie Kavanagh's tome on Ashton. Both ladies have BEEN THERE & KNOW! [Unlike poor old Diane Solway & her fitfully funny book on Nureyev that has one blunder every five pages].
Like Ms Kavanagh, Ms Daneman can't help but do a hatchet job on Dame Ninette de Valois & Sir Fred, both of whom come across as real pieces of work. [Dame Ninette's one redeeming featurein my eyes is that she had no time for Antony Tudor, who, with his total self destructiveness & totally amateur work practices would have finished the Sadler's Wells Ballet by the outbreak of WW2.]
Happy reading.
