Camilla Sacre-Dallerup recommends the spiritual and philosophical novel, The Celestine Prophesy

I don’t know what drew me to it but as soon as I started reading it spoke to me, Camilla Sacre-Dallerup tells Christine Manby

(Illustration by Tom Ford)

Camilla Sacre-Dallerup believes in talking to strangers. “Nothing in life is a coincidence,” she says. “Every stranger you meet may have information to exchange with you. Every time I sit on a plane, I don’t think about how I wish I didn’t have to sit next to this or that person, I ask myself what information we will share.” It’s a belief that has shaped her life.

Sacre-Dallerup, who grew up in Denmark, is best known to viewers in the UK as one of the professional dancers on the first six series of Strictly Come Dancing, partnering perma-tanned antiques expert David Dickinson and Olympian Roger Black before she won the show with Holby City actor Tom Chambers in 2008. A year later, she braved the jungle in I’m a Celebrity. She’s been a judge on Dancing with The Stars New Zealand. Since then, she’s pivoted away from dancing to become a life coach, hypnotherapist, meditation teacher and author with three well-received self-help manuals under her belt (zenme.tv). She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Hollyoaks star Kevin Sacre.

As a dancer, Sacre-Dallerup made every step look effortless, but it wasn’t always easy. There were moments when, deep in debt and living on baked beans due to the cost of training and competing, Sacre-Dallerup came close to giving up on her dream. One such moment came in the early noughties when Sacre-Dallerup travelled to Hong Kong with her then dance- and life-partner Brendan Cole to compete in a top-level amateur competition.