Home Work

A Memoir of My Hollywood Years

By: Julie Andrews, Emma Walton Hamilton

Narrated by: Julie Andrews

In this New York Times best-selling follow-up to her critically acclaimed memoir, Home, Julie Andrews reflects on her astonishing career, including such classics as Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, and Victor/Victoria.

In Home, the number-one New York Times international best seller, Julie Andrews recounted her difficult childhood and her emergence as an acclaimed singer and performer on the stage.

With this second memoir, Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years, Andrews picks up the story with her arrival in Hollywood and her phenomenal rise to fame in her earliest films - Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. Andrews describes her years in the film industry - from the incredible highs to the challenging lows. Not only does she discuss her work in now-classic films and her collaborations with giants of cinema and television, she also unveils her personal story of adjusting to a new and often daunting world, dealing with the demands of unimaginable success, being a new mother, the end of her first marriage, embracing two stepchildren, adopting two more children, and falling in love with the brilliant and mercurial Blake Edwards. The pair worked together in numerous films, including Victor/Victoria, the gender-bending comedy that garnered multiple Oscar nominations.

Cowritten with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, and told with Andrews's trademark charm and candor, Home Work takes us on a rare and intimate journey into an extraordinary life that is funny, heartrending, and inspiring.

©2019 Julie Andrews (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Julie Andrews, along with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, have put together an elegant memoir of Andrews's Hollywood years.... Delivering many of her insightful diary entries, Andrews sounds sincerely amazed and delighted.... 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." (AudioFile Magazine)

"[Home Work gives] readers long-awaited details about [Julie Andrew's] earliest films like Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music.... Andrews continues to approach life - and writing - with strength and grace." (People)

A bit detailed in parts, but great overall

Summary: Second, in what is probably a trilogy of memoirs, roughly covering 1963 to 1986.

It has been almost exactly nine years since I read, and loved, Julie Andrews’ first memoir Home. That memoir of her early years in vaudeville and her time in the theater and the breakout roles on Broadway was well told and extremely well narrated. This memoir, Home Work, picks up with the filming of Mary Poppins, right where the first memoir left off.

I mostly listened to Home Work, with some occasional reading on kindle (I bought both on sale). The production of this audiobook did not use any music as the first one did, but that makes sense because the period is covering an era when Julie Andrews was mostly acting in film and rather than being known for singing in variety shows or specials on TV.

The weakness of Home Work is an expanded version of the problems of Home, the detail. I am not sure how to avoid the issue as a writer. As a reader, especially as a reader that has not seen any of her movies between Sound of Music and Princess Diaries, the details about shooting and costars was not why I picked up the book. I am sure others are more interested in that portion of the book.

What was engaging about Home and was also present here is her introspection. Mostly she is opening herself up to the world and sharing what her life has been like. The level of drug abuse and alcoholism around her is tragic, with children, siblings, parents, her husband. She shares freely about her struggles of depression as well as the depression of her husband and many others. There are more than a few suicide attempts by those around her.

Home Work is a story of ‘more money, more problems’. Her first marriage ended essentially because both she and her husband were never together. After all, they were pursuing separate careers in the film world. She had long stints filming around the world, and he had long jobs designing films (so that even when they were working on the same movies, they were not working at the same time). Later, when she married her second husband, Blake Edwards, a director, and mostly working together on movies, they bought houses and boats and spent money taking care of dependent relatives so that they felt compelled to keep working. It was a bitter cycle; they had to work to pay for their lifestyle, but also had to pay for assistants and nannies and people to take care of their homes because they were working all the time.

It is incredible to think that Julie Andrews had filmed Mary Poppins, The Americanization of Emily, and The Sound of Music before any of them were released. From 1964 to 1986, she starred in 20 full-length movies, was the host of two TV seasons where she hosted a show and did about 10 network specials. That is in addition to occasionally touring as a singer. During that same time, she had her daughter from her first marriage, two stepchildren from a second marriage, two adopted children and cared for a much younger half brother.

She started psychotherapy reasonably early in her film career, and I think that probably matters to how she introspectively tells the story of her life. (She also frequently quotes extended sections of her diaries.) Her need to care for the people around her, from financially supporting her parents by the age of 16, to caring for a whole host of family and people around her throughout her life, I think she does accurately talk about the importance of home to her. The reason she wanted a home in Switzerland, and worked hard to keep primary residence there, was that she was trying to build a safe place for family. The pressure she accepted to care for others was enormous, not helped by her second husband, who also needed constant care between his depression and addictions to pain pills.

Julie Andrews did not participate in the drug and sex culture of Hollywood, but it still impacted her. She worked hard and tried to take her art seriously. She appreciated that she had been lucky and was rewarded for her talent, while others with equal or more considerable talent had not.

In the end, while I did not think that Home Work was quite as good as Home, I did very much enjoy it, and I do have even more respect for her than I did before, and I will immediately pick up the next memoir when it eventually comes out.

honest and funny. Surreal and entertaining

listening to Julie tell her story is simply devine! The experience is like having her right beside me, telling me her stories. It's such a wonderful delight to not only get a pretty detailed description of her Hollywood years, but to have Julie herself tell her story.

Wonderful stories and intimate details

Loved Julie's first memoir "Home" and this is the follow on, beginning with her first film, Mary Poppins through her last film with Husband Blake Edwards Victor Victoria (one of my favorites!) Julie shares personal insights and stories about each film, as well as the daily challenges of marriage, divorce, children, step-children, parents, etc. She's had a colorful life and she shares the good, the bad and the ugly. Loved the stories of the many celebrities and stars she knew and worked with, her humanitarian work and her career and family.

So heart warming

I loved listening to this book. Every time I had to stop listening, I could hardly wait to get back to it. It seemed so honest and so revealing. A super book!

Outstanding!

Ms. Andrews portrays herself as human, with deep feelings and a great love for family and strength of endurance.

Lovely & fascinating but she told it so factually

I absolutely love Julie Andrews and thought this book was a lovely, fascinating listen. I loved that she narrated it herself, it felt like a gift, a warm hug to be able to hear her tell her story with her iconic voice! However, I wish she spoke a little bit more conversationally and with more emotion. At times, it felt like she was merely restating the facts. She had a pretty tough childhood and upbringing but felt it was read with little emotion or connection to the stories she was saying. I loved hearing about her life, career, adventures, kids - I felt like I really got to know her hearing her tell her story! I don't know why she wasn't able to be more expressive because she has quite an imagination and is quite a storyteller herself (aka the Whangdoodles!). As I saw another listener write, I also bought the hardback for my grandmother for Christmas, as I've enjoyed telling her about Julie's book along the way and thought she'd love the book!

Outstanding Woman - Outstanding Life

This is a wonderful review of Julie Andrews Hollywood years. I didn't realize she was such a fantastic children's book author besides her incredible acting & singing career. After reading this I read all of the other books she has written. What a joy it is to read such happy stories. This woman is a class act.

Julie At Her Best

This was a great listen: Julie Andrews at her very best! Major themes: family, film work, and all the unexpected pros and cons of people she’s worked with and places she has lived. There’s just one glaring omission for me: no discussion of the loss of her singing voice, as that happened later. Five stars even still! ENJOY

I love Julie so much.

Read above. I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really love Dame Julie Andrews. There's 15 words:

What an amazing life.

That Julie Andrew's read the story herself. A few stories I felt were ok to add but somewhat weren't nessary to add.