In her new autobiography, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years, Dame Julie Andrews reveals the trials and tribulations of growing up in a household in which her stepfather, Ted Andrews, tried to take sexual advantage of her. It began when she was nine and continued until her teenage years, when her aunt physically installed a bolt on her bedroom door. Andrews writes about the irony of the fact that her stepfather was the one who can be credited for launching her show business career. However, the memories of near sexual molestation haunt her until today. For more click here
Here is the publisher's description of the book:
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.
To order this book from the Cinema Retro Amazon store, click here