She is paid to kill. She has no fixed address, as her job keeps her on the move for most of the year. She is much in demand in Latin America, where her particular talents are more appreciated than back home in her native Spain. She employs seven men, whom she must feed and house for the duration of a contract. And then there is the cost of her gear - the cloaks, the daggers, the slippers, the suit of lights . . .

Within minutes of meeting Mari Paz Vega, Spain's leading female matador, the world of bullfighting has been skewered, stripped of its mystique. The era of Dominguín, whose conquests outside the ring - including Ava Gardner, Lana Turner and Rita Hayworth - were as notorious as