Author:Meredith Daneman
Margot Fonteyn - born plain Peggy Hookham - was dreamed into existence by the architects of British ballet: Ninette de Valois, Frederick Ashton and Constant Lambert. Carried to fame on a wave of wartime patriotism, Margot's sense of duty rather than ambition propelled her forward. Yet her gifts were such that her pre-eminence would come to eclipse the careers of subsequent generations.Ballet is a fairytale world; if Margot, like the pure and poetic heroine of Swan Lake, was a natural Odette, she would also have to contend with virtue's raw shadow-side in the guise of Constant Lambert, Roberto Arias and Rudolph Nureyev - the men who, like Von Rothbart, were to take possession of her heart.
Since I first got the soundtrack when it was released on cassette during the early nineties, I’ve come to appreciate it more and more... it is... a work of genius and a truly marvellous Doctor Who story.
—— Paul Clarke , Outpost GallifreyIreland's number-one statesman.
—— Irish PostStuart Maconie is the best thing to come out of Wigan since the A58 to Bolton
—— Peter KayAn heir to Alan Bennett ... stirring and rather wonderful
—— Antony Quinn , Sunday TimesIf you only read one personal music odyssey, make it this one
—— GQWitty and wise, with more good lines than the Angel of the North
—— Hunter DaviesA working class boy who now, on air, challenges Stephen Fry's spry wit, Maconie celebrates his younger self modestly and fluently, pausing only for regular rib-ticklers
—— MojoMaconie makes a jovial, self-deprecating narrator. Sharp and funny
—— GuardianExuberantly anecdotal, witty and poignant
—— GQ