After World War II, she and her husband Richard Barclay emigrated to Canada, where she landed her first film role in "Sins of the Fathers". The couple returned to Britain in 1956, where she continued her stage, film, and television appearances.
She excelled in classics at Cambridge University. After she was turned down by the Civil Service Board, she lived in London with actor/songwriter Ivor Novello's mother, who taught her to sing and play piano. She later enrolled in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.