Irene Holland is in her 80's and lives in Tiverton, Devon, with her husband, Kaye. They have seven children who have all danced professionally and 13 grandchildren. Since the 1950s Irene has run her own dance school and still teaches five days a week at The Willow Tree Centre of Dance and Performing Arts, where she has over 200 pupils. She says she has no intention of retiring and is still known to do the odd high kick, especially after a tipple of her favourite red wine!
Heather Bishop is Irene's co-writer. Heather is a journalist with 16 years experience of writing, editing and commissioning true-life stories for newspapers and women's magazines.