Hester's Story [antikvár]

Set in the late Eighties in deep mid-winter in Yorkshire, it takes place over ten days between Christmas and Twelfth Night and skilfully weaves two stories - the past stitched into the present. The overall story follows the life of a former prima ballerina, Hester Fielding, from her girlhood in France to the present day when she is in her early fifties. In the present story, she lives in Wychwood Hall, left to her by a rich benefactor who was her first ballet teacher. Ten years earlier, Hester founded the Wychwood Festival - a ballet festival that takes place each year in the little theatre built in the Hall's grounds, when a new ballet created for the Festival is performed. The two narratives follow the production of the ballet, which brings together many characters who clash and conflict and bring Hester's past tumbling into the present. That past includes a disastrous love affair, a life-changing accident and a lost child...