I was born in Lytham St Anne’s, Lancashire on 15 November 1934 and I was fortunate to have music on both sides of my family. My mother, Muriel Porter (1906–2003), played the violin and sang at school. Her sister, Irene, studied piano and singing at the Royal Manchester College of Music, where she was a contemporary of Alan Rawsthorne – she said he wore fine cravats – and later on my sister Meriel would study there. My mother concentrated on drama and was offered a place with Frank Benson's Shakespeare Company but the values of their Victorian parents were a factor in discouraging the sisters’ professional approach to literature or music, although both gained diplomas. My mother found her own outlet by giving solo dramatic recitals throughout her active life, always from memory and vividly characterised, based on Shakespeare, Dickens and many poets. We shared much of the poetry that gave rise to my song-cycles.

My father, Frank Dickinson (1906–78), was a well-trained pianist with an exceptional musical memory; after only one hearing he was playing the tunes from My Fair Lady before the sheet music was issued. He was a church organist for most of his life and became an internationally respected contact lens specialist. His two sisters and his brother played the piano, the girls to a reasonable standard. My childhood was during the Second World War – my sister is five years younger – and our musical life was centred on the Methodist Church. The competitive festivals held in the main towns were another influential feature of our local musical activity, probably more prevalent in the North. These were an excellent training ground for public performance. In each class some twenty or more competitors would play the same piece. The adjudicators were usually distinguished figures such as Herbert Howells and David Willcocks. It was Willcocks who awarded me first prize at the Four-Day Fleetwood Festival in September 1953 for playing Mendelssohn's Rondo Capriccioso. After I had started learning the organ at school I was in demand at churches around Lytham St Annes.

I have been asked about the violent confrontations in some of my music and it could be related to growing up during the Second World War, after I had been born into what Auden disparagingly called ‘a low dishonest decade’.