Melanie Hamrick: my new novel, dating Mick Jagger and being a mum

According to Melanie Hamrick, the outwardly refined world of ballet is, in fact, a hotbed of drink, drugs, debauchery and eating disorders. When she’d repeat the colourful anecdotes of her 16 years as a member of the corps de ballet at New York's American Ballet Theatre (ABT), "Mick would say, ‘Enough with telling these stories from the ballet — you’ve got to write them down.’ " So she’d carry a notebook, jotting down all the juicy details, joking that one day she’d put it all in a book.

Now she has. First Position, the 36-year-old's debut novel, is set in the world of ballet and, if not a literal bodice-ripper — "I wish I had done a scene where they ripped a bodice, but