Home: A Memoir of My Early Years
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Home: A Memoir of My Early Years

3.8 of 5 stars 3.80  ·  rating details  ·  2,479 ratings  ·  686 reviews
We all know Julie Andrews from The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins, but few people know the story of her road to fame. In this memoir, Julie Andrews& nbsp; takes us from her early years with an aspiring Vaudeville mom and a loving dad, to her parents??? divorce and mother??'s remarriage to a difficult stepfather. Julie has kept diaries her whole life, so every anecdote in ...more
Hardcover, 339 pages
Published April 1st 2008 by Hyperion
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Mike (the Paladin)
In 1967 I was 15 years old and I fell in love with Julie Andrews. However, due to the facts that there was an almost 17 year age difference and Ms. Andrews was unaware of the situation my love remained unrequited. Eventually I did recover from my broken heart and had to admit to myself that I was quite likely not the first 15 year old to fall in love with someone from (what was then called) the "Silver Screen" (though to be honest in the years since I suspect it has become more common ...more
Kay
Kay rated it 4 of 5 stars
I'm not sure what I expected from this memoir. Ok, actually, I do. I expected to hear about how Miss Andrews emerged from a well-to-do family well-mannered and with expensive training to become the success that she has been. Why did I think this? Because when I was young, Julie Andrews was one of the two people who epitomized "class" in my mind. And I suppose quite naturally, I thought that came from a very good upbringing and high social status.

I've been proven wrong....more
Tracy
Tracy rated it 2 of 5 stars
I got this book from the library because I thought it would be fun to learn more about Julie Andrews. I wondered how she got started, etc. And her persona is so graceful, calm and assured - I wanted to see behind it a bit.

The problem is...you don't really. There was just no emotion in it and I just don't feel like a got a lot of insight into her. She did share quite a bit about her difficult childhood. But she shared it with exactly the same tone and pacing and matter-of-factness tha...more
Adela
Adela rated it 4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for: people who like Julie Andrews, or autobiographies in general.
Recommended to Adela by: No one
Julie Andrews' Home is a remembrance of her childhood and the early years of her career, up to the time she arrives in California to shoot Mary Poppins.

Most people tend to have a preconceived idea as to what Julie Andrews' life must have been like...she always seems so polite and proper, and of course she is so talented, that you assume her life was practically perfect in every way. Reading the first chapters of Home, you realize that this simply is not the case.

She tells...more
Tara
Tara rated it 4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for: Andrews fans, autobio fans
Reading this reminded me of talking to a family member about stories of the past. She shares lots of fascinating stories from the early years, but fans of Mary Poppins, Sound of Music, and any other later work will be disappointed, because there is very little mention of those years. However, she warns you in the title that it is a memoir of the early years. The only thing missing is a bit more of her internal emotion, and though there were a few times where I felt like I was getting to know her...more
Kathryn
I'm not sure this is a four-star book but because I'm a life-long fan of Julie Andrews, yes I "really liked" reading through the details of her early life.

Andrews' tawdry upbringing (or rather, her being raised by an oft-tawdry couple, her "Mum" and step-dad Ted Andrews) is given just enough description to paint a picture but it stops short of drowning the reader in goo. And one cannot help but think that perhaps Andrews developed that slightly reserved, wholesom...more
Vanessa
A spoonful of Julie helps the medicine go down! An entertaining and interesting read.
Heidi
An avid admirer of the best voice on Broadway (and in movie musicals), I couldn't wait to crack open this book after being on the wait list for weeks. However, after reading this pleasant memoir, I closed the book with many more questions about what makes Julie Andrews tick than I had before I finished the first chapter. The strength in this easy read are the few times that Andrews delivers wonderful "Broadway in the making" tales of working opposite such greats as Rex Harrison and Ric...more
Chad
Chad rated it 3 of 5 stars
As a lifelong devotee of Julie Andrews and having read many of her children's books, I knew fairly well what to expect in this, her first volume of autobiography.
She's charming and polite and as forthcoming as she can be, which is to say, not very forthcoming. There's crisp British distance between the events of her childhood and young adulthood, none of which was terribly storybook. The product of a one-night stand (which she didn't know until much later), Andrews dearly loved the man she...more
Jeanette
Jeanette rated it 3 of 5 stars
Shelves: nonfiction, 2008
I really knew nothing about Julie Andrews before reading this book. I'd seen her musicals and a few of her movies and that was about it.
In this memoir Andrews tells the story of her early life going from a young vaudeville star in England to a Broadway celebrity.
For the most part, I thought it was an interesting book. While the book was written with the grace and dignity that Andrews has come to be known for I found it interesting to learn that she might not be as squeaky clean as th...more
Rosary
Rosary rated it 5 of 5 stars
Shelves: biogrpahies
Julie Andrews' memoir of her early years is an amazing story of determination and a growing love of art. Ms. Andrews has a wonderful writing style--simple and clear--and her voice comes through quite clearly. While many memoirs gloss over the trials of life to focus on the triumphs, Ms Andrews pays attention to both the hardships of her World War 2 and Post World War 2 life as well as the joys and the triumphs. She also reveals the troubled nature of her home life. In other words, she doesn't ...more
Adam Shields
Short review: This was a near perfect audiobook. The narration by Julie Andrews could not have been better. The restrained but useful additions of some of her music as transition was very good (something I don't normally like.)

But overall it was just a very charming story of a humble and gracious woman. It only goes through the birth of her first child (just before filming of Mary Poppins) so there is a lot of story left to fill in.

I am really surprised how much I enjo...more
Jennifer
I would recommend this book to Julie Andrews' fans or anyone interested in theater and performing. Some sections about the work involved in starting up and keeping up a musical were rather long. Other sections seemed like they had been included just to name drop and show that she personally knows lots of famous people. Overall, I just couldn't get into her life story. I don't know if it is her writing style or something else. I didn't enjoy the book as much as others seemed to have done. P...more
Schmacko
To many people, Julie Andrews is a voice of class and distinction. So it’s fun to learn that she was the product of her mom’s first, bad and short marriage. She also moved around a lot, shuttled about by World War II and her mother’s second and third marriages, including the affair in between. Andrews made her bedroom in a storage room below a street, and she fended off a slightly creepy alcoholic who became her stepfather. She lost touch with siblings. Artists often come from ugly, painful...more
Immen
Immen added it
My snobbery gets in the way of reading memoirs by non-writers, but I liked bits. Andrews talks about being a nervous teenager, terribly aware that the only thing she knows how to do is sing, already worried about losing her top notes. Later, doing shows 6 nights a week plus matinees, repeatedly losing her singing voice, speak-singing through her climactic songs, knowing she can't make it through the second act, but the show must go on. It gives me chills, the idea of pinning your vocation to a ...more
Lori
Lori rated it 3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for: musical theatre lovers
I knew very little about Julie Andrews' personal life prior to this. I have been a big fan since I was a little girl and learning about her early years was fascinating to me. The discipline she applied to her vocal training from a very early age is a testament to every voice/piano/dance teacher who needs a good role model for their "practice makes perfect" lectures.

She speaks with candor and grace about her difficult childhood which took me completely by surprise. She speak...more
Elisabeth
I too was really surprised by Ms. Andrews memoir--I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting, but I was pleasantly surprised. I guess I had an image of Julie Andrews being this very proper English lady who plays queens and nuns, and had no idea of her background. (Of course, she also played the role of a cross-dresser...) Learning about her childhood and adolescence, and the struggles she dealt with was very eye-opening. I enjoyed the honesty, candor, and humor with which she told the story ...more
Kate
Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars
Shelves: my-library
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
V. Briceland
I confess that in the early pages of Julie Andrews Edwards' memoirs I began to fear I might be overwhelmed in trying to keep straight the names of all her aunts, dogs, and cousins. There seem, in my weary memory, to have been about a dozen of each. More electrifying, however, is the story that unfolds of the three men vying to be the star's father—her mother's first husband, whom she thought of as her dad, the alcoholic artist of a second husband whom Julie supplanted as a headliner on his own t...more
Sera
Sera rated it 3 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: Sarah
This book is pretty interesting. Like many celebrities, Andrews has a difficult childhood, but once she leaves home at the age of 15, the rest of her life works out very well for her. The book ends when she gets the Mary Poppins role so I'm not sure what happens thereafter. Andrews attempts to remain humble throughout the book while pointing out what a phenom she was, but she has a right to give herself props. There's no real scandal around her, she was a team player and most of all, she was...more
Mike Aragona
I had been looking forward to reading this biography from the time I purchased it. Not really knowing much of Julie Andrews beyond Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, I was curious to see how much of who she is came out on the screen.



As a bio, it did its job of informing me of how she got into the business and her slow rise to stardom through the trials and tribulations of the Stage. However, it was often more a simple retelling of places and events as opposed to really digging in to learn ab...more
Liz
Liz rated it 5 of 5 stars
As a child, some of my earliest movie memories were of seeing, and loving, Julie Andrews in both "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music." That early initiation to this wonderful actress was the start of a life-long admiration of her and her work, so I was thrilled to be able to read a memoir about her early life and I'm happy to say that reading "Home" just added to my appreciation of Julie Andrews as both an actress and a woman.

"Home" start...more
Jane
Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars
If you have ever enjoyed watching Julie Andrews in anything, you'll love reading about the early years of her life and how she began developing her talent. She dodged many bullets in her youth--alcoholic and abusive step-father (nearly molested her at least twice), alcoholic and promiscuous mother, being paraded and essentially forced to work as a child prodigy, lacking a home base for many years, etc. I really liked reading about her life, though I couldn't help but feel she started to sound ...more
Ms.Walton
I’ve been reading a memoir by Julie Andrews this week. For you youngsters, she played Mary Poppins and Maria in The Sound of Music. More recently she appeared as the queen of Genovia in The Princess Diaries. She is also an author who writes under the pen name of Julie Edwards. She wrote The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles and a book called Mandy.

I noticed that in talking about past places she has lived, Julie Andrews often mentions the names of the houses. I did some resear...more
Kristen
Maybe (like everything in life) it's all about expectations. I didn't have much for this book, and I was so pleasantly, wonderfully surprised by how entertaining it was. First, when Julie Andrews writes, you can hear her saying the words -- she has a wonderfully authentic voice. The book focuses on her life before super stardom (in fact, it ends as she is about to go onto the "Mary Poppins" set), and really is about her childhood (tougher than you'd expect) and growing up on the vaudev...more
Megan
Megan rated it 4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for: anyone
At times a bit sentimental and slow, this autobiography was still an interesting and heart-wrenching read. Plagued with emotional abuse and turmoil during her childhood, Julie Andrews found refuge and acceptance on the stage. I loved reading about her time on Broadway as Eliza Doolittle and Guenevere. I'm definitely hoping for a sequel!
Lorra Walton
I’ve been reading a memoir by Julie Andrews this week. For you youngsters, she played Mary Poppins and Maria in The Sound of Music. More recently she appeared as the queen of Genovia in The Princess Diaries. She is also an author who writes under the pen name of Julie Edwards. She wrote The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles and a book called Mandy.

I noticed that in talking about past places she has lived, Julie Andrews often mentions the names of the houses. I did some research...more
Amy
Amy rated it 2 of 5 stars
I'm not sure what I expected from this memoir. Ok, actually, I do. I expected to hear about how Julie Andrews emerged from a well-to-do family, well-mannered and with expensive training to become the success that she has been. Why did I think this? Because when I was young, Julie Andrews was one of the two people who epitomized "class" in my mind. And I suppose quite naturally, I thought that came from a very good upbringing and high social status. I wondered how she got started, etc. And her pe...more
Michelle
Julie Andrews was someone I really admired growing up and just wanted to learn more about her life. She is truly an amazing woman with her strong vocals and acting abilities. She started out singing at a very young age, and had a rough life as a young child growing up in England during WWII, and living between 2 homes with her parents divorcing. I was actually able to see what it was like for someone growing up during that time frame. My negatives on this were....I would get lost in all of t...more
Courtney
This was a lovely book, but what else did I expect from Julie Andrews? Home deals with her life from before birth (she fills in some family history) right up to just before starting filming on Mary Poppins.

There doesn't seem to be much written about Julie Andrews out there, so I didn't know much about her origins. She did not have an easy childhood, but she never used that as an excuse. She seems amazingly well-adjusted compared to many contemporary child stars who had it much easie...more
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Dame Julie Elizabeth Andrews Edwards, DBE is an award-winning English actress, singer, author and cultural icon. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honours. Andrews rose to prominence after starring in Broadway musicals such as My Fair Lady and Camelot, as well as musical films like Mary Poppi...more
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“Once in a while I experience an emotion onstage that is so gut-wrenching, so heart-stopping, that I could weep with gratitude and joy. The feeling catches and magnifies so rapidly that it threatens to engulf me.” 12 people liked it
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