Henrietta Garnett
Maynard’s Muse
Bloomsbury Ballerina: Lydia Lopokova, Imperial Dancer and Mrs John Maynard Keynes
By Judith Mackrell
Weidenfeld & Nicholson 476pp £25
I knew and was fond of Lydia Lopokova, the Russian ballerina and subject of this book, and am related to a good many people who come into the second half of it. Vanessa Bell was my grandmother and Duncan Grant my grandfather. Even I make a fleeting appearance in the last chapter. So I am delighted that Judith Mackrell, who never had the luck to know her, has managed to capture Lydia's likeness uncannily well in pen and ink.
The career of a dancer is, by its very nature, brief. Until the advent of film, the traces of a dancer's art were ephemeral, only remembered for a generation, after which they might be passed into legend. Paintings and photographs illuminate but are static. Nothing remains of Lydia's work except for a short footage of film so badly out of synch with the choreography as to be risible. The problem of there being insufficient material about Lydia's early life is compounded by there being too much about her later years. When Lydia married the economist John Maynard Keynes, she married into the heart of Bloomsbury, most of whose members were not only in the habit of writing innumerable letters but also hoarding them. It was a habit Lydia acquired, and as a result, for all Mackrell's valiant editing, this book is lopsided.
To compensate, Mackrell has not only got the hang of Lydia, but she is also remarkably good at conveying information without being didactic. A former dancer herself and currently dance critic of The Guardian, Mackrell is thoroughly informed about the ballet and lifts us effortlessly through the difficulties of technique
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk