FOLLOWING LI CUNXIN’S best-selling memoir, Mao’s Last Dancer, both he and others suggested to his wife Mary Li, 62, (formerly Mary McKendry) that she should also share her story. As a former principal ballerina with the London Festival Ballet and Houston Ballet, Mary’s extraordinary performing career included leading roles in all the major classical ballets and many contemporary, as well as those created especially for her. She has collaborated with Rudolf Nureyev, Margot Fonteyn and Ben Stevenson and continued to perform after the birth of their daughter, Sophie, in 1989.

Sophie was born profoundly deaf and after the diagnosis, Mary dedicated her life to helping her daughter – who had her first cochlear implant at age four – whilst also raising younger children Thomas, now 28, and 23-year-old Bridie. Despite the challenges, Mary’s ballet discipline helped her persist in finding answers. Sophie, now 31, signs and speaks,, published in November this year by Penguin Viking.