Celia Louise Paris grew up on a farm in Somerset during the 1950s. She was fortunate to attend a school in her small village and, inspired by her music teacher, went on to study for a London University Bachelor of Music Degree. Teaching first at an ILEA comprehensive school and then at a convent in Dorset, she left just before the birth of daughter number one in 1985. Celia, her husband, and their three daughters have moved house fourteen times, perhaps the most unusual was to live on a boat in Essex. For the last six years, the couple have lived in France.