Home: A Memoir of My Early Years

Home: A Memoir of My Early Years

by JulieAndrews (Author)

Synopsis

Over the years Julie Andrews has been much interviewed in the press and on television, but she has never before revealed the true story of her childhood and upbringing. In HOME she vividly recreates the years before the movies. An idyllic early childhood in Surrey was cut short when her parents divorced and her mother remarried. The family moved to London, and there are vivid scenes of life during the Blitz. Her mother went into musical theatre with her stepfather, who encouraged Julie to have singing lessons which led to the discovery that her voice had phenomenal range and strength for someone her age. Before long she was appearing on stage with her parents. She soon realised how much she enjoyed looking out into the black auditorium with the spotlights on her. By the time she was a teenager, Julie was supporting her whole family with her singing performing. A London Palladium pantomime led to a leading role in THE BOYFRIEND on Broadway at 19. Parts in MY FAIR LADY opposite Rex Harrison and CAMELOT with Richard Burton soon followed, and there are wonderful anecdotes about the actors and actresses of her day.But this is far more than a collection of show stories (it's not until the last page of the book that Julie gets the call from Disney for MARY POPPINS), HOME is an honest, touching and revealing memoir of the early life of a true icon.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 384
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Published: 07 Mar 2008

ISBN 10: 0297643576
ISBN 13: 9780297643579
Book Overview: Front page press coverage on publication Author tour, to be confirmed 'Andrews, who has written several children's books, now dances in a different direction with this delightful remembrance of her own childhood and engrossing prelude to her cinematic career... Readers will rejoice, since Andrews is an accomplished writer who holds back nothing while adding a patina of poetry to the antics and anecdotes throughout this memoir of bittersweet backstage encounters and theatrical triumphs.' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Media Reviews
the book is magic... Andrews is far too polite to exploit her catalogue of hurts, but some moments really sting -- Antonia Quirke SUNDAY TIMES This book is several dozen cuts above the usual showbiz memoir. I eagerly await the next instalment -- Roger Lewis SUNDAY EXPRESS it is precisely the frankness which gives the book such an admirbly unsentimental tone. -- Michael Arditti DAILY TELEGRAPH Andrews's book is not devoid of fascination. How could it be? DAILY MAIL will astond her friends and those who have followed her career. DAILY EXPRESS lays bare several family secrets, including that she was born of an illicit affair DAILY MAIL most of the book is painfully shrewd and written with delicacy and pathos -- Emma Brockes INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE The quality of her prose is such that you are remindeded she is already an established children's author.. SCOTSMAN Julie tells the really quite harrowing part of her childhood with the same breeziness as she does her subsequent stardom. -- Nicky Haslam SPECTATOR Dame Julie's precise voice drips from every sentence Gay Times Home is an honest self-portrait by a much-loved star who has a thumpingly good story to tell and tells it well. 3SIXTY Candid and perceptive, providing a vivid portrait of her formative years Good Book Guide Very well written as one would expecr from such an accomplished writer. but with not a trace of self-pity from the author. ReFRESH There are revelations and anecdotes by the score in prose that is as immaculate as its author -- Christie Hickman S Magazine, Sunday Express her prose is confident and somewhat romantic, filled with reminiscences of an England that no longer exists. -- Paul Vale The Stage
Author Bio
Dame Julie Andrews is an Emmy, Grammy and Academy-Award-winning actress and singer, best-known for her roles in MARY POPPINS and THE SOUND OF MUSIC.