Margot Fonteyn

As prima ballerina of the Royal Ballet for over forty years, Margot Fonteyn inspired generations of younger ballerinas and dazzled audiences worldwide. This first biography since Fonteyn’s death covers those aspects that Fonteyn herself chose to ignore in her Autobiography and movingly describes the last years of her life. It also discusses her long relationship with the conductor and composer Constant Lambert, the most influential lover of her youth, who conceived several ballets for her. The book also reveals the importance of Fonteyn’s mother to her career, and describes her marriage to Tito de Arias. Recreating many of Fonteyn’s most famous roles, the author illumines them with some of her rare words about her repertory. He also charts her collaboration with the choreographer Frederick Ashton, and her three dance partnerships – with Robert Helpmann, Michael Somes and, most famously, Rudolf Nureyev.