Book description
Better Late Than Never is the extraordinary story of how a man
born into poverty in London's East End went on to find stardom late in
life when he was chosen to be head judge on BBC One's Strictly Come
Dancing. Len will be telling all about his new found fame, not
only his experiences on Strictly Come Dancing, but also on the
no. 1 US show Dancing with Stars and his encounters with the
likes of Heather Mills-McCartney.
But the real story is in his East End roots. And Len's early life
couldn't be more East End. The son of a Bethnal Green costermonger -
he spent his formative years running the fruit and veg barrow and
being bathed at night in the same water they used to cook the
beetroot. There are echoes of Billy Elliot too. Though Len was a
welder in the London Docks, he dreamt of being a professional
footballer, and came close to making the grade had he not broken his
foot on Hackney Marshes. The doctor recommended ballroom dancing as a
light aid to his recovery. And Len, it turned out, was a natural. At
first his family and work mates mocked, but soon he had made the final
of a national competition and the welders descended on mass to the
Albert hall to cheer him on. With his dance partner, and then wife
Cheryl, Len won the British Championships in his late twenties and
retired soon after.
Funny and heart warming, Len's autobiography has all the honest East
End charm of a Tommy Steele, Mike Reid or Roberta Taylor that we know
works so well with book buyers.
Len Goodman is a professional dance judge who also teaches ballroom
and Latin dancing at the school he runs in Dartford, Kent. Now in his
sixties, he has one son James, 26, who is a singer and dancer. He
travels all over the world lecturing, teaching and judging.
