‘Flott’ reflects on her career, a lifetime partnership with Graham Johnson and how she felt winning the Legion d’Honneur.

Britain in the 1950s was full of opportunity. What led you towards music and singing?

I had very good local teachers. I had a great aunt who taught me the piano when I was quite little, about five. Terrifying! And then I had lessons at school. The head of music taught me piano and his wife taught me violin. I wasn’t so focused on music – I was mad about French. I spent a year in France as part of my French degree. I had to give English conversation lessons on weekdays, which left a weekend so long I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was all on my own in the mountains, about 15 miles from Grenoble and I was a bit lost, so I went off and enrolled in the conservatoire. I had a wonderful teacher – such luck! – because, you know, singing teachers weren’t terribly good over there. That’s an awful blanket statement, but I was very lucky to find this one. I didn’t really know what I was going to do – I’d...