George Willett was born on 11 February 1933 at Leigh, Lancashire, the son of George Willett, a canon of the Church of England and his wife Beatrice, née Juniper. Willett won a music scholarship at Denstone College and was runner-up in the organ scholarship examination for Gonville and Caius College

Isabella Forshall was born and spent her childhood in affluent surroundings in Sussex. Details of her family are not recorded but she was educated privately at home where her mother, who read classics at Girton College, Cambridge in the 1890s, had a powerful influence, imbuing her with a keen apprec