Audrey Hepburn: A Biography - Warren G. Harris

Category: Adults, Autobiography & Biographies, Plays & Theater
Language: English
Keywords: California Holland Hollywood Motion Pictures World War II

Written by Warren G. Harris
Read by Wanda McCaddon
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

· Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
· Release date: 10-31-17
· Publisher: Blackstone Audio

Beginning with her harsh childhood in Nazi-occupied Holland, Warren Harris chronicles Audrey Hepburn’s meteoric rise to Hollywood stardom: her chance encounter with Colette that led to the lead role in the Broadway version of Gigi, and her first starring role in Roman Holiday, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Hepburn played opposite the top leading men, worked for the best directors, and picked from a wide range of roles.

She memorably embodied Truman Capote’s Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and went from rags to Technicolor Victorian beauty in My Fair Lady. Warren Harris also traces Hepburn’s affairs and unhappy marriages, as well as her later work as goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. Throughout the book he illuminates her special ability to exude grace and style, both on screen and off.

Reader reviews – “…underneath all of the well-researched facts and trivia and all the information and precision found in this biography, the biographer is simply not a very good writer. Biographies are generally written in a semi-formal tone, and certainly not a conversational one. For the most part Harris stuck to one voice, but there were times when he would slip from formal into dead casual, or add in some turn of phrase that struck discordant and spoiled the thought. But I did learn much about Audrey that I presume to be true.”

“Although I will admit I would have preferred reading the book written by Audrey Hepburn’s son. For the most part I enjoyed this book but I did feel there was a lot of speculation in some places. Still, it was written in a good comprehensive manner.”

“However, this book reads like the author simply read gossip columns and magazines of the time period, rather than a thoughtful biography of an amazing life. There appeared to be no first hand accounts or interviews. I would have given it a much higher rating had there been a personal touch to the book.”