Peggie Sheridan was a dancer. She lived, and performed, in the British Empire of the 1920s and 1930s. She died in 2004, alone and unrecognised, but still survives in the memories of those who knew her.

A fresh style and captivating storyline describe Peggie’s fascinating personality through her several "hard times". Her love for dance and her need to perform are tangible throughout the book. The pressures of growing up in the theatre, a child’s perspective of family turmoil and disruptive relationships are just some of the aspects of her existence, and they are brilliantly depicted by the author.

For more details about the book, visit site http://www.playing-the-empire.com/

I guess the main idea is that people used to have these giant ecstatic rituals that bond people together and made everybody happy. In our staid first-world culture, these rituals were once common but became looked down upon as primitive.
While historically interesting and food for thought, I found it to be so unscientific, especially the evolution parts, that it was a bit obnoxious. Story-telling is fine, but without data it remains a story.
I also found the judgments about our modern culture to be a bit old and trite. How can she say that we don't have common ecstatic rituals and not really discuss burning man?