Book Review: Home Work By Julie Andrews - A Memoir

From The Original Showgirl Herself, Julie Andrews!

Home Work is a delightful recounting, in true Mary Poppins style, of her journey in show business during the 1960s and 1980s - from her vaudeville roots in London to glitzy Broadway in New York, up until her life as a bona fide Hollywood star. 

The second of her three memoirs, this book made me want to watch The Sound of Music all over again - for the hundredth time! And I wasn’t mad about that, because that’s exactly what I did. Watching the film now and seeing all those iconic scenes through Julie’s eyes is so fun.

Reading it felt like a warm cup of tea while sitting on the living room floor, listening to grandma tell stories about the “olden days”…if grandma happened to be a Hollywood starlet.

I enjoyed learning about her big, beautiful, blended family and their travels all around the world. Though at some point, it starts to feel like the Blake Edwards show. 

Still, I’ve always wondered what happened to Julie after Mary Poppins and TSOM, and before The Princess Diaries. Home Work certainly answers those questions and then some. The girl's been BUSY!

My Highlights From Julie's Memoir

• Filming The Sound of Music in Austria and Germany, not long after WWII, during which time the real Von Trapp family’s villa was dark and dank and still contained traces of Hitler’s atrocities - and long before it would be turned into a museum.

• Shooting in Hawaii before it became so heavily westernised, while the island was still a paradise in all its glory, and fears on set about rumours of unrest in Vietnam.

  
  

• Accidentally spilling homemade trifle all over a friend’s brand-new Rolls-Royce!

  
  

• Her romance and eventual marriage to The Pink Panther creator, Blake Edwards.

  
  

• Being serenaded by the “Young Americans” - an alternative, of sorts, to the counterculture of the same era, and whose main battlefield was music. Think Glee and Pitch Perfect.

• Undergoing bunion surgery (ouch!).

  
  

• Spending Christmas in the Swiss Alps under snow-covered peaks, snuggled in a horse-drawn sleigh, and casually meeting up with Elizabeth Taylor.

  
  

• Living in a Georgian manor house in Dublin, once visited by Queen Victoria.

  
  

• Chatting with former King Edward VIII at Villa Windsor about the Paris riots.

  
  

• Living through the horrors and panic brought on by the Manson murders in their LA neighbourhood.

• Receiving a personal karate demonstration by the martial arts master himself, Bruce Lee.

• Getting married in their backyard and realising the ceremony wasn’t captured on camera!

• Being offered cocaine as `'dessert`' at a Hollywood dinner party - and politely declining.

  Julie recalls: “I stood at my open kitchen window and looked out across the golf course, trying to make some sense of the surreal experience.”

  
  

• Hiring a South African nurse to help care for their first adopted daughter, Amelia.

  
  

• Living through the Watergate scandal.

  
  

• Surviving the heartbreak of the Operation Babylift tragedy - babies and caregivers from Amelia’s orphanage were among those lost in the plane crash. Julie and Blake later adopted their second daughter, Johanna, from a subsequent airlift.

  
  

• Managing a large blended family while balancing life in the Hollywood spotlight.

  
  

• Touring sculptor Henry Moore’s private estate in Hertfordshire, who, interestingly (admirably?), declined a knighthood.

  
  

• Strolling through the Swiss Alps to exercise her vocal cords.

  
  

• Taking advice from Shirley MacLaine, who said about stage performance: “I just choose a persona to play. Will I be the gracious hostess, the comedienne, the vivacious dancer? Once you’ve decided on your role, it’s a lot easier.”

• A brief stint performing in Vegas - and a vow to never do it again.

  
  

• Living “that yacht life under chopper blades” in the south of France.

  
  

• Surviving an earthquake while touring Japan and wallowing a moth mid-song onstage! I can't decide which is worse.

  
  

• Touring the Greek Islands and being surprised by a visit from the local mayor.

  
  

• Returning to Vietnam for philanthropic work to help children in orphanages. Of one of her visits, Julie wrote: “I felt guilty about having to leave. As I write this tonight, it is horrible to know that those children are all still there, on their hard cots... that the little boy in the orphanage is one day nearer to death.”

It was amazing to hear firsthand accounts about people and stories we now only read about in history books. And one day, the times we’re living through now will be history. So, get writing.