Rudolf Nureyev

NOW A MAJOR FILM BY RALPH FIENNES, THE WHITE CROW ''A gripping account of an extraordinary life'' Daily Telegraph Born on a train in Stalin''s Russia, Rudolf Nureyev was ballet''s first pop icon. No other dancer of our time has generated the same excitement - both on and off stage. Nureyev''s achievements and conquests became legendary: he rose out of Tatar peasant poverty to become the Kirov''s thrilling maverick star; slept with his beloved mentor''s wife; defected to the West in 1961; sparked Rudimania across the globe; established the most rhapsodic partnership in dance history with the middle-aged Margot Fonteyn; reinvented male technique; gatecrashed modern dance; moulded new stars; and staged Russia''s unknown ballet masterpieces in the West. He and his life were simply astonishing. ''Magnificent, a triumph. Captures every facet of this extraordinary man'' Mail on Sunday ''The definitive study of a man who, in his combination of aesthetic grace and psychological grime, can truly be called a sacred monster'' Observer ''Undoubtedly the definitive biography'' Sunday Telegraph