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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.4028092
EAN: 9780786865659
ISBN: 0786865652
Label: Hyperion
Manufacturer: Hyperion
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: April 01, 2008
Publisher: Hyperion
Release Date: April 01, 2008
Sales Rank: 4248
Studio: Hyperion
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Since her first appearance on screen in Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews has played a series of memorable roles that have endeared her to generations. But she has never told the story of her life before fame. Until now.
In Home: A Memoir of My Early Years, Julie takes her readers on a warm, moving, and often humorous journey from a difficult upbringing in war-torn Britain to the brink of international stardom in America. Her memoir begins in 1935, when Julie was born to an aspiring vaudevillian mother and a teacher father, and takes readers to 1962, when Walt Disney himself saw her on Broadway and cast her as the world's most famous nanny.
Along the way, she weathered the London Blitz of World War II; her parents' painful divorce; her mother's turbulent second marriage to Canadian tenor Ted Andrews, and a childhood spent on radio, in music halls, and giving concert performances all over England. Julie's professional career began at the age of twelve, and in 1948 she became the youngest solo performer ever to participate in a Royal Command Performance before the Queen. When only eighteen, she left home for the United States to make her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend, and thus began her meteoric rise to stardom.
Home is filled with numerous anecdotes, including stories of performing in My Fair Lady with Rex Harrison on Broadway and in the West End, and in Camelot with Richard Burton on Broadway; her first marriage to famed set and costume designer Tony Walton, culminating with the birth of their daughter, Emma; and the call from Hollywood and what lay beyond.
Julie Andrews' career has flourished over seven decades. From her legendary Broadway performances, to her roles in such iconic films as The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Hawaii,10, and The Princess Diaries, to her award-winning television appearances, multiple album releases, concert tours, international humanitarian work, best-selling children's books, and championship of literacy, Julie's influence spans generations. Today, she lives with her husband of thirty-eight years, the acclaimed writer/director Blake Edwards; they have five children and seven grandchildren.
Featuring over fifty personal photos, many never before seen, this is the personal memoir Julie Andrews' audiences have been waiting for.
Amazon.com Review:
Syphilis, alcoholism, infidelity, and indeterminate parentage may seem improbable touchstones in the back story of one who didn't so much portray as embody the blithe Maria in The Sound of Music. But as this memoir of her formative years makes clear, there is more gravitas to Andrews than meets the eye. From her childhood in rural England and initial forays into British theater, to her first massive successes on Broadway and in the West End--notably as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady--Home puts her celebrated career in context. While arguably offering more detail about the Andrews family than necessary, it nevertheless dishes wonderful anecdotes about legends and Andrews contemporaries like Noël Coward, Rex Harrison, Robert Goulet, Richard Burton, and Rodgers and Hammerstein, in prose as crisp and immaculate as the author herself. It also offers a revealing look into the intricate, exhaustive craft of performing--skills often taken for granted in tabloid times. Since the book ends just as Andrews is about to launch into the celluloid stratosphere, can Volume II be far behind? After Home, it would be most welcome. --Kim Hughes
Customer Reviews Average Rating: 
Rating:  - "Somewhere in her youth, she must have done something good"
By now, most everyone who wishes to read this book knows many of the details.But to me, there are two extraordinary things that have become obvious about Dame Julie.First, she writes this book much like she speaks.It's as if she were reading it to me in her own special style. Refined, and with a well developed grasp of the English language.And yet, she has had virtually little, if any, formal education.Her mother put a halt to her tutoring by the age of 14, and she may have received an ... Read More
Rating:  - A Beautifully Written Memoir
Julie Andrews' greatly anticipated book Home : A Memoir Of My Early Life is just as it should be - honest, practical, humourish, and told without a whiff of vengence or spite.
Like so many other child/young adult stars of film, theatre, TV, Julie Andrews was the daughter of a woman with driving ambition to become a star of vaudeville, who even sacrificed her marriage to Julie's school teacher father to achieve it.
Though this must have proved devastating to a young Julia Wells, who adored ... Read More
Rating: - Why We Love Julie
After spending two hours in line to get her to autograph my copy of this book, I was hoping it was worth reading.And it was.It only reinforced the reasons I have always admired Julie Andrews.She was honest about her not-so-auspicious childhood and never resorted to "artistic temperment" to defend herself for her failings.She was gracious to all the people she mentioned, including her step-father.She defended him for his contribution to her career without denying the reasons she had for sometimes ... Read More
Rating: - Reading "Home" was like listening to Julie Andrews tell me about her life
I loved this book.From the first sentence, I could hear Julie Andrews calm and beautiful voice telling her story. For anyone who sings, this book is invaluable as she talks about how she studied singing and how to use her voice and conserve her energy when performing. Although this book ends at the top of her career and you want to read more, there is so much that she tells you, you will enjoy it and look forward to more.
Rating: - Bittersweet memoir filled with grace
In Home, A Memoir of My Early Years, Julie Andrews reveals a difficult childhood in war torn Britain.Born to a mother with dreams of stardom of her own and a father prone to drink, she weathers the German's Blitz that ravaged London.Her parents eventually divorce and her mother remarries.Julie begins her performing career locally and eventually branches out to radio, music halls and eventually a command performance before the Queen (the youngest solo performer age the age of 12).Continuing to draw ... Read More
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