This week we're delighted to be able to add to our stock a reprint of Serge Grigoriev's 'The Diaghilev Ballet, 1909 - 1929', one of the most important books on the Diaghilev company but, paradoxically, one of the least well known.

Its importance derives from the fact that, apart from Diaghilev himself, Grigoriev was the sole member of the Ballet Russe who was with the company from its inception to its dissolution on Diaghilev's untimely death. Grigoriev was Diaghilev's right-hand man, and dealt with all aspects of running the company save that of financing it - hiring and firing dancers, taking class, supervising rehearsals, etc. He kept a detailed log book of his and the company's activities, and in the early 1950s distilled this into a history of the company - the sole complete first-hand account we have.

The book's scarcity derives from its chequered publishing history: an initial hardback edition in 1953 had a short life and was never reprinted, a Penguin edition in the 1960s was printed on such cheap paper that most copies soon disintegrated, and an American reprint in the early 1970s fell victim to a flood in the publisher's warehouse. The book has thus been out of print for more than 30 years, and is an essential addition to the library of anyone with even the remotest history of ballet in the twentieth century.

As usual, you'll find details of this and other new items, together with on-line ordering facilities at:

www.dancebooks.co.uk/new.asp