Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34978 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 404 pages

Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian
summer round-up selection - "magnificent"

Review
"Mackrell's enthralling biography restores Lydia Lopokova to her rightful position centre-stage." (Michael Arditti DAILY MAIL )

"Bloomsbury Ballerina is a compelling account of the extraordinary life and times of an unforgettable woman. Mackrell is to be congratulated." (Henrietta Garnett LITERARY REVIEW )

"the English took Lydia Lopokova to their hearts and so Judith Mackrell is right that she merits a biography." (Duncan Fallowell DAILY TELEGRAPH )

"Mackrell shows us exactly what made Lopokova one the last century's 'true originals.'" (Frances Wilson SUNDAY TIMES )

"Judith Mackrell.. is brilliant at making the reader see why Lopokova matters" (Kathryn Hughes THE GUARDIAN )

"How shrewd and kind of Mackrell to extricate Lopokova from so many decades as the snubbed alien in Bloomsbury footnotes." (Veronica Horwell NEW STATESMAN )

"Mackrell's unfailingly vivacious and scholarly biography pays splendid tribute" (Rupert Christiansen SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )

"she was, as Mackrell concludes, one of the 20th century's 'true originals' and this narrative tells us exactly why" (Clement Crisp FINANCIAL TIMES )

"What is successfully researched and confidently told is Lopokova's impressive dancing career" (Diana Souhami THE INDEPENDENT )

"admirably researched.. enthralling" (Mary Clarke Dancing Times )

"colourful and well-researched" (Robert Giddings Tribune )

"Lopokova led a life encompassed by ballet, Russian revolution and the Bloomsbury Group, every disparate strand woven skilfully together in Mackrell's thorough and absorbing biography" (The Good Book Guide )

"Judith Mackrell, in this masterly biography, shows us why we should remember her (Lopokova).. writing as fine as one could hope to encounter." (Judith Flanders TLS )

"this biographer is elegant and true about a seminal figure.. who has long lacked a proper historian-critic. Now, she has found one." (James Woodall Dance Europe )

"excellent" (Jonathan Sale CAM )

summer round-up selection - "magnificent" (Kathryn Hughes The Guardian )

"Mackrell has done an excellent job of putting her back in the spotlight again" (Marianne Brace INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )

"a 'good read' while still giving a rounded portrait of this remarkable woman" (George Dorris DANCE NOW )

Christmas Recommendation - "a hugely entertaining and informative study of the Ballets Russes star" (Rupert Christansen THE SPECTATOR )

"The vividly-described, extraordinary life of the lively and eccentric ballerina" (COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD SHORTLIST )

"I found this biography entirely enjoyable. Mackrell captures the fizz of Lopokova's personality, her loveability, and makes her come alive" (Alison Light LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS )

Duncan Fallowell, Daily Telegraph
"the English took Lydia Lopokova to their hearts and so Judith Mackrell is right that she merits a biography."

Customer Reviews

An absorbing read
Once I started this I couldn't put it down; I loved it. I bought it (obviously) to find out more about Lydia and her life in the world of ballet. I certainly did that and what a wonderful character she turned out to be (though in some ways just as enigmatic at the end of the book as at the beginning). Her early life especially involves the author in quite a lot of guesswork and there are some teasing mysteries.

But I got so much more besides: insights into the Bloomsbury set and it educated me (very readably indeed) as to just how towering a fugure Maynard Keynes was. If anyone had told me I'd be enthralled by an economist I'd have laughed. A really good read - buy the paperback - it's just out.

The unexpected Lady Keynes
I knew that Keynes had married a Russian ballerina, but had no idea how colourful and distinguished the lady was. Judith Mackrell's entertaining and illuminating account of a life which included a surprising but triumphant marriage is richly entertaining, and covers many of the 20th. century's most important events as well as the tortuous development of the many ballet companies. I defy anyone not to end up liking Lydia.