Bloomsbury Ballerina: Lydia Lopokova, Imperial Dancer and Mrs John Maynard Keynes - Hardcover

Mackrell, Judith

4.11

84 ratings by Goodreads

9780297849087: Bloomsbury Ballerina: Lydia Lopokova, Imperial Dancer and Mrs John Maynard Keynes

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297849085 ISBN 13: 9780297849087

Publisher: Orion, 2008

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Born in 1891 in St Petersburg, Lydia Lopokova lived a long and remarkable life. Just five feet tall and a natural comedian, her vivacious personality and the sheer force of her charm propelled her to the top of Diaghilev's Ballet Russes.

Through a combination of luck, determination and talent, Lydia became a star in Paris, a vaudeville favourite in America, the toast of Britain and then, most unexpectedly, she married the world-renowned economist, and formerly homosexual, John Maynard Keynes.

Lydia's story is an extraordinary one, linking ballet and the Bloomsbury group, war, revolution and the economic policies of the super-powers. She was the Russian ballerina who flitted intriguingly through the lives of so many remarkable individuals, including Nijinsky, Picasso, Stravinsky and Virginia Woolf. Above all, she was an immensely captivating, eccentric and irreverent personality: a bolter, a true bohemian and, eventually, an utterly devoted wife.

Judith Mackrell brings Lopokova gloriously to life, and claims Lydia's place as a major character - not only in the history of ballet, but also in the history of the Twentieth Century.

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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)

Book Description:

The story of the splendidly unpredictable Russian dancer who ruffled the feathers of the Bloomsbury set and became the wife of John Maynard Keynes

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