Tall and beautiful, with legs like spun steel, Darcy Bussell's has been one of the success stories of the 1990s. Her autobiography is highly intelligent about the pleasure, as well as the pain, of being a dancer; she is keen to excel, to be a great artist, but the urge to succeed is only a part of her story.

After taking a variety of dance classes as a child, she fell in love with the ballet, and manages to convey some of what that love is about. She is fascinating on the learning of physical control and the sense of balance essential to good dance; her book is also informative on the precise relationship between a ballerina and her male partners and the process of learning each other's abilities and limitations. The account here of the making of new productions and the strengths of choreographers from the dancer's point of view is both warm-hearted and acute.

A whole new generation of the dance-struck will be inspired by this excellent book, but also informed and warned; Bussell is delightful and smart on the perils of the celebrity circuit, the jealousies and alliances of a permanent company and on the vagaries of stage designers. --Roz Kaveney