Julie Andrews

An Intimate Biography

By: Richard Stirling

Narrated by: Rowena Cooper

In 'My Fair Lady', Julie Andrews had the biggest hit on Broadway. As the title role in 'Mary Poppins', she won an Academy Award. And 'The Sound of Music' made her the most famous woman in the world and rescued Twentieth Century Fox from bankruptcy. Three year later, 'Star!' almost put the studio back under, and the leading lady of both films fell as spectacularly as she had risen.

Despite many setbacks - including the loss of her singing voice in 1997 - Julie Andrews is still a star, with recent leading roles in 'Shrek the Third' and 'The Princess Diaries'.

Combining the author's interviews with the star and his wide-ranging research, this is a frank but affectionate portrait of an enduring icon of stage and screen.

©2007 Richard Stirling (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

The whole story

I just loved the story, Always fun to get a glimpse behind the scenes. Thank you so much 👍🏼

A Lady

I loved learning so much about a Love and Lady that I seem to grow up watching and remembering how I felt watching her as I grew up. love learning about her take no bs

Loved the reader and the story of Julie Andrews

I had listened to Julie Andrews' book, Homework, and I appreciated this book very much. It balanced some controversy with facts. It was fascinating to see how Hollywood and the entertainment industry operates behind the scenes. I also got a better understanding of the "goody" image that Julie Andrews had to contend with. What an amazing woman and what she accomplished was even more amazing. I began watching some of her shows on you tube and saw what a great performer she was despite the filter most people saw. She was also very good at comedy too. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The reader was hilarious and poignant.

A great biography about a well-loved star

Anyone who has loved Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins or Maria Von Trapp can enjoy this comprehensive biography. It was enlightening to learn about all of her other contributions to stage, film, literature, and society in general.

ok

Didn't care for narrator. Some of the stories seemed a bit embellished. Enjoyed her autobiography more.

Pronunciation problems

The narrative is interesting enough for me as a fan of Ms. Andrews. Unfortunately, I have little praise for the performance of Rowena Cooper. Her attempts at an American accent are pedestrian at best, showing that it can be just as difficult for a Brit to do an American accent as for an American to do a serviceable British accent. Not unlike Bob Hoskins version of an American accent in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

Just as I am about enjoy a segment, the most jarring of mispronunciations will hit my ears. Ziegfeld is not pronounced "Zig-feld" but "Zige-feld" (long "i" sound; 4 hours and 3 minutes into part II). And who is "Amy Archerd"? A few moments after the aforementioned Ziegfield reference, there is a quote attributed to Variety's long time reporter "Army Archerd" (at about 4:06:51 in part II of 2). I had to listen to that one over and over again to be sure I had heard what I thought I had heard. Maybe Amy is like Victoria to Victor? Sadly, no.