Born in Walton, Andrews, 84, began performing at 12. In the 50s, she made her Broadway stage debut in The Boy Friend and then starred in My Fair Lady.
She played the title role in the 1964 film Mary Poppins, winning an Academy Award; and in 1965 she made The Sound of Music. Andrews raised five children with her late husband, Blake Edwards and lives on Long Island, New York.
She has written two memoirs with her daughter Emma. The personal photographs on these pages are from the second, recently published Home Work.
What is your greatest fear?
Something happening to my kids.
What is your earliest memory?
Sitting on my mother’s lap in the car and, as my father pulls up to our little house in Walton, saying what they tell me is my very first word – home.
Walton was where my mother was born and I was born there too. In those days it was just a fairly small village sandwiched between Weybridge and Hersham.
We were in London for a while during the Blitz but, eventually, my mother wanted so badly to go back to where she was born and where her relatives were, and that’s what we did. I love the history of Walton and the fact that Turner painted Walton Bridge in the old days.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Insecurity.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Thoughtlessness and lack of consideration for other people.
What was your most embarrassing moment?
Performing on stage as a child in dirty, rain-spattered socks. I’d forgotten to pack my dress shoes, so my mother painted white ballet slippers over my socks with what they used to call ‘wet white’. But my socks were still wet and I left little white footprints all over the stage.
Aside from a property, what’s the most expensive thing you’ve ever bought?
I saw a very expensive painting by a wonderful American painter called Charles Burchfield. I thought if I did three extra concerts on my tour, I might be able to afford it. And I did and I bought it.
What is your phone wallpaper?
My poodles, Button and Barney.
What would your superpower be?
Ending poverty.
What makes you unhappy?
If my kids are unhappy, I can’t relax or be happy at all.
What is your most unappealing habit?
Interrupting.
What is your favourite smell?
Fresh earth in a warm greenhouse.
What is your favourite word?
Wonder.
Which book changed your life?
A book that my father bought me when I was about eight or nine. It’s called The Little Grey Men, by Denys Watkins-Pitchford, under the nom de plume BB.
It’s a very sweet story and it opened my eyes to the wonder of nature. I loved it and eventually acquired the book rights for America and was proud to publish it for a while.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
A botanist or a florist.
What is top of your bucket list?
A reading vacation. My idea is to be in a lovely place under an umbrella for a week or two, reading all the books that are on my bedside table.
Is it better to give or to receive?
To give.
What is your guiltiest pleasure?
A bowl of cornflakes in the middle of the night.
What do you owe your parents?
The discovery of my voice.
To whom would you most like to say sorry and why?
I think that I over-apologise as it is.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My children.
What does love feel like?
As you go through life you discover so many forms of love – passionate, compassionate, familial, friendship. Love is hard to describe, but it’s wonderful.
Have you ever said “I love you” without meaning it?
Probably.
Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?
T H White, the English author of The Once and Future King; Philip Pullman, whom I adore as a writer; Stephen Sondheim, Tom Stoppard and Moss Hart – the great director who has passed. I think that dinner would be perfect.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Sorry, and a few unprintable ones too.
What is the worst job you’ve ever done?
Trying to bake cookies for my kids. I didn’t have any baking powder and I thought that baking soda would do instead. They came out like bricks and were totally inedible.
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Losing my singing voice. I had to have an operation and it was not a success. I’ve not been able to sing since.
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
I’d change losing my voice.
If you could go back in time, where would you go?
Renaissance Europe.
When did you last cry, and why?
Working on my newest memoir. Some memories were painful to revisit.
How do you relax?
Gardening, listening to music, watching CBS series, reading.
What is the closest you’ve ever come to death?
Spinning on an icy road in Europe.
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
A cure for arthritis.
What has been your closest brush with the law?
When I first came to the United States, I was stopped by a traffic cop who discovered that my English licence had expired five years previously. I was horrified.
What keeps you awake at night?
Lately, writing the memoir; also, I do worry about the state of the world.
What song would you like played at your funeral?
Something triumphant. I couldn’t tell you what, but something vibrant and joyous.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
When in doubt, stand still.
Where would you most like to be right now?
Exactly where I am, but 20 years younger.
An edited version of this interview appeared in the Weekend Guardian.
Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years is published in hardback, ebook and audiobook by W&N, priced £20
