Amaryllis Fleming was born in secret on 10 December 1925 and grew up believing herself to be the adopted daughter of Eve Fleming, the widowed mother of the writers Peter and Ian. It came as a profound shock when, at the age of 23, she learned that Eve was her real mother, that she did after all have a father, and that he was Augustus John. She also discovered that she had about 12 half-brothers and sister from very differing family backgrounds. Amaryllis became particularly close to Ian Fleming and makes an appearance in his story The Living Daylights, in which James Bond is captivated by a girl cellist. Having decided to learn the cello at the age of nine, Amaryllis won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in 1943 and went on to study with Pierre Fournier, Guilhermina Suggia and Pablo Casals. She rose to become England's leading solo cellist of the 1950s, making her debut in a 1953 Promenade Concert with Sir John Barbarolli. She has since become renowned for her performances of Bach's Cella Suites, playing the sixth Suite on the instrument it was written for, the rare five-string cello. Her beauty and Celtic temperament ensured that her emotional life would be as dramatic as her professional. Today she is a professor at the Royal College of Music and, is still performing.