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.
