The Russian ballerina Lydia Kyasht was very much a free spirit. A childhood friend of her fellow ballerina Tamara Karsavina, she appears frequently in the early pages of the latter's autobiography, usually as chief mischief-maker, and her autobiography reflects that aspect of her personality. She gives her impressions and experiences of European life and society, especially of the Russian Court before the revolution, but her book is as much about the author's romantic adventures as it is about her dazzling career as a dancer - "I believe it is a good thing for a woman to have a lover," she...