Born Pamela Ann Clements, her parents, Ann Tribe and Reginald Clements, married in 1940. Shortly after Clement's birth in 1942, her mother died and she was put into foster care when her father remarried. Clement subsequently grew up in various different foster homes until she was taken in by a family who owned a farm in Devon. She has commented: "I was very fortunate in the end. I was always being farmed off to holiday homes, then when I was just pre-teens I went down to Devon to some people who were very good at taking on youngsters, and what originated as a business arrangement became my home." Clement's father rose to become the managing director of a toy manufacturers in London and married five times in total over the course of his life. Clement was sent to boarding school on the South Downs, where she was—by her own admission—"very naughty". She was active in the drama society at h…
