David Leonard

I'm the managing director of Dance Books Ltd., the English bookselling and publishing company specialising in books about all forms of dance. I was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, Bristol (an experience about which I still have regular nightmares), and read psychology at Exeter University. Having then decided that I didn't want to be a psychologist, I took a job with Bristol Public Libraries and was sent by them to London to study librarianship. I passed all the exams with flying colours, and never set foot professionally in a library again. My education then continued, rather more successfully, in the Amphitheatre bar at the Royal Opera House.

In 1968 I took a temporary job with Dance Books in Cecil Court, off Charing Cross Road in London, and have been there ever since, gradually worming my way to the position of managing director. I now seem to be 63 (obviously some mistake) and, thanks to my twice weekly workout at the gym (something I swore I'd never sink to, but at this age it's either that or arthritis), am a triumphant demonstration of the body's ability to continue working efficiently despite the intake of large quantities of alcoholic substances.

My two loves are classical music (most sorts and periods, though I'm not crazy about opera) and, obviously, dance, with the emphasis on classical ballet, although I enjoy most good choreography. (It's become obvious to me over the years that the great divide is not between ballet and modern dance, but between good and bad choreography.) I also very much enjoy good food and wine, and love dining out with friends. I was one of the first members of the Groucho Club and am still a great devotee of its restaurant, 'though I wish it was a bit cheaper.

I'm also joint editor, with my colleague Allen Robertson, of the British quarterly dance magazine Dance Now. If you don't already subscribe, please do: we think it's oneof the best dance magazines around.

In the autumn of 2000, finding that the ever-increasing rents, rates and squalor of central London made running a business shop there untenable, my colleagues and I took the difficult decision to move the business out of London, continuing to work as publishers, and as retailers on a mail order basis. It was a big risk, but thanks to the support of our many loyal customers, it has paid off. We found delightful premises in a converted bakery in Alton, a small country town between Guildford and Winchester, and are very happily installed here. Our main working area is rather like a dance studio, with a glass roof through which we look up and see the sky - a nice change after 30 years spent mostly in a London basement. Before the bypass was built, Alton was a stopping place on the main road from London to Portsmouth, and this is refelected in the number of local pubs, all of which seem to have survived the loss of passing trade: there are 15 on the main street alone, and three within a hundred yards of our office: most convenient.

I'd love to hear from old friends: please email me at dwl@dsl.pipex.com

In 2003 I moved to Binsted in Hampshire, with my friends John and Richard, and my special friend, Bruno, now sadly deceased.

Here is a picture of me, and some of our house.