One of the most unusual backgrounds for a classical musician was that of the Australian pianist Eileen Joyce.

Her father was an itinerant Irish labourer, her mother was Spanish and she was born in a leaky tent in a Tasmanian forest.

Her cradle was an old petrol drum. Later, they lived in a one-roomed hut with no windows.

Her early years were nomadic and hard, as her parents wandered about Australia looking for work.

Her first musical instrument was a mouth organ someone gave her, on which she became a local prodigy.

Later, she was taken in by nuns, learnt the piano and was discovered by the composer Percy Grainger.

Aged 15, she was sent to Leipzig to study, where she worked unremittingly, nearly destroying her health.

Moving to London aged 18, she played at a Prom and soon became one of the most popular performers of her day. Her career had taken her from tent to exquisite Mayfair flat.

With a special interest in film, she worked on the soundtracks of Brief Encounter and The Seventh Veil (both 1945) and a film about her childhood, Wherever She Goes. She died in 1991, aged 78.

-Roger Moodiman, Marine Parade, Brighton