Home Work

Starred review from October 28, 2019
Singer and actor Andrews, writing with her daughter Hamilton, offers a sincere and inspiring account of her life, focusing on her Hollywood years beginning in 1962. After a brief recap of her youth in England (covered in more detail in her earlier memoir, Home), Andrews recounts her first movie role in Mary Poppins and her experiences in the Disney studios, where Walt Disney himself offered “fatherly kindness” to the young actress, who was newly a mother and married to her childhood sweetheart, set and costume designer Tony Walton. Her next big role—again, as a nanny—was in The Sound of Music. Writing of her role in 1966’s Torn Curtain, she shares behind-the-scenes tales of Alfred Hitchcock’s wry humor, as well as shooting an “anything but dreamy” love scene with Paul Newman. Her marriage collapsed from the strain of work and travel, but in 1969 she met the mercurial producer Blake Edwards at a traffic intersection on Sunset Boulevard. Andrews shares tales of her colleagues (Peter Sellers was testy on The Pink Panther set; Dudley Moore charmed her in Ten) as well as her efforts to stabilize her marriage to Edwards (they remained married until his death in 2010). This charming account of Andrews’s professional and personal life will no doubt serve to make the venerated performer all the more beloved.

Following her bestselling memoir HOME, Julie Andrews, along with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, have put together an elegant memoir of Andrews's Hollywood years. In that charming, familiar voice, Andrews fills in the years between 1963 and 1986, recounting her arrival in Hollywood, her marriage to designer Tony Walton, its eventual end, and her astronomical rise to stardom in MARY POPPINS and THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Delivering many of her insightful diary entries, Andrews sounds sincerely amazed and delighted. She married producer Blake Edwards (VICTOR/VICTORIA), a marriage that lasted 41 years, until his death. Andrews acknowledges her gifts, but she attributes much of her success to luck. We're the lucky ones--to have Andrews and this audio gem. S.J.H. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine