Christine Belinda Allsopp was born in London and raised in Farnham Common near Pinewood Studios. Her father was an architect, writer, surveyor and editor of the Estates Gazette. Her mother, Connie Reeve, was a leading make-up artist who supervised John Huston’s ‘Moulin Rouge’ and ‘Beat the Devil’, and ‘The Tales of Hoffmann’ for Michael Powell. Her uncles Harold and Gerald Fletcher were make-up artists; Harold trained Connie, the first woman trained at Shepperton Studios in the early 1950s. Aunt Eileen was also a make-up artist and exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy.