The composer Nicola LeFanu tells us about her life in music as part of this series celebrating inspiring women. When she was growing up it didn't occur to her that composition was an unusual thing for a woman to do; it seemed completely natural, surrounded as she was by women who wrote music: her mother, the composer Elizabeth Maconchy, and her friends including the Welsh composer Grace Williams and the Irish composer Ina Boyle. It was only when Nicola went on to study music herself that she realised how few women had been included in the books which told the history of Western Classical music. In this edition of The Essay, Nicola shares her story of what, and who, has inspired her own career spanning over half a century and how things have changed for women in music during her lifetime.