A CLASSICAL pianist who became one of Soho’s brightest stars has written an autobiography detailing a colourful life which began when she was abandoned as a baby.

Anna Paola, who lived in Salisbury until last year, wrote much of the final draft of Along Came a Spider in the city’s reference library.

Growing up during the Second World War, she won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London as a pianist.

Following a bad accident to her left hand, she went to teach the piano for three years at Gordonstoun School in the Scottish Highlands, where pupils included Prince Charles.

Returning to London, she became involved in a circle of famous musicians and actors with several love affairs along the way.

In the seventies she met Dudley Moore, with the pair enjoying a long and close friendship. They played duets together and ‘two pianos’, on his visits to London to promote his films.

Yehudi Menuhin’s sister Hephzibah also became her mentor and friend.

In the nineties she was a pianist at the historic dining club Kettner’s in Soho and was playing some Bach there when the Soho nail bomb exploded at the Admiral Duncan pub around the corner.

She said: “People kept saying to me ‘you should write your life story Anna’.

“I found it very cathartic to write.

I started it sitting under a tree in Regent’s Park one summer.

“I don’t have a computer so wrote everything out longhand.

“Looking back I believe having the start I did was a bit of a privilege because it meant I became my own person – I had to survive, I had no other option.”

Anna spent nine years living in Salisbury until moving back to Soho last year. She played at Mompesson House for five years and gave three watercolour art exhibitions. She also gave several concerts for the hospice and St Thomas’s Church.

On reading the manuscript, William Boyd, a former pupil at Gordonstoun School, said: "I think it is a remarkable piece of work, largely because your voice comes through the narrative of your life so freshly and with a compelling honesty. 

"You write with tremendous charm that radiates off the page... It seems guileless - and almost innocent."

Along Came a Spider is available to order from Waterstones, Foyles and Daunt Books in London in addition to Amazon online.