A prodigious musical talent has died of ovarian cancer, aged 45.

Pianist Alison Baker, from Clacton, hit the headlines when she became the youngest pupil of the Royal Academy of Music in 1972, when she was just nine.

She had first climbed on to a piano stool at 18 months, taking proper lessons from the age of five and achieving grade eight at eight years old.

Alison's health took a turn for the worse earlier this year, and she died peacefully in Stockholm, Sweden, on Sunday.

"She was extremely intelligent and full of fun," said her mother Ruth,