This very well researched book shows a side of Audrey Hepburn the public never saw.  Far from the glamours life of her later years, Audrey went through some unbelievably hard times during her teenage years.

The book can be rather dry at times with so many facts, but it's an important story and worth persevering.  I always enjoyed Audrey Hepburn as an actress but now I also have immense admiration for her as a person.

I did not finish this book. I found the narrative repitative and uninspiring. I felt Audrey Hepburn was tagged on to boost sales

Very interesting book about Audrey.  Recommend this to anyone looking to learn more about her.  3.5 stars.

The Dutch Girl, I was looking forward to reading this book, however I was not able to get into it. There are many characters in the book and some of the such as Audrey, her mother and a few other members are called different names. It’s enough they change name and to on top of it use their title, their nick name, real name.  It did not make it for a smooth readying. A lot of information. Was interesting, however having some of it told as a story,  then as a researched fact made it choppy reading for me.  I have dragged reading this book and finally came to the conclusion that I would no longer invest time in trying to finish it.

For such a fascinating story, this was such a dull book. The author had a clear problem from the start, since Ms. Hepburn was too private and too traumatized by the war to talk about it much during her life. Matzen was able to get some facts about where she was and when, things her mother wrote, and things like that, but because he didn't know her and she didn't talk about her feelings, that's mostly all you get. We read long detailed histories about the town she was in and what was happening, without much humanity or connection to Ms. Hepburn or the other people who lived it.

I read a digital galley of this book for purpose of review.

Dutch Girl 

Being a long time fan of Audrey Hepburn I have read several memoirs that have been written about Audrey’s life and film career, but none of these can compare to the in-depth look Dutch Girl provides to the most influential years in Audrey Hepburn’s life, her time spent in the Netherlands during World War II.

Dutch Girl takes a closer look at Audrey Hepburn’s war story and many of the facts that Audrey refused to discuss in the public eye for many years. Largely, Dutch Girl is written from the historical perspective of World War II and the events surrounding the daily struggle of survival for Audrey and her family. I was in awe of Audrey’s story and how it impacted the rest of her life and career. 

If you are looking for the glamour of Hollywood and stories from Audrey’s film career this book is not for you. This book means to tell a deeper story of who Audrey was and the world in which she grew up in. 

I would definitely recommend especially for anyone who has a love for both history and Audrey Hepburn. 

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this ARC!

This was such a unique book.  Not only is it a biography of Audrey Hepburn, but it also gives a detailed history of The Netherlands and their experience during World War II.  I learned so much, but about the actress and her country.

Audrey Hepburn's life would have made a great novel. She was born into a wealthy Dutch aristocrat family with a British father and a Dutch mother. Her parents, who divorced when Hepburn was young, were members of the British Union of Fascists, dedicated supporters of Adolf Hitler. Her mother attended the infamous Nuremberg rally in 1938 and wrote glowingly of it in the British fascist magazine published by Oswald Mosely. Her father was imprisoned in England for the duration of the war, Her mother took Hepburn and her two brothers to live in Holland, thinking that Hitler would not invade. He did, and the harsh realities of a Nazi occupation led the family into support for the Dutch resistance.

In the later years of World War 2 Hepburn was in her mid-teens, an accomplished ballet dancer and a brave participant in the efforts to undermine the Nazi occupation.

Robert Matzen has written a comprehensive biography of Hepburn's life. If it has a fault, it is in too much detail.

Dutch Girl by Robert Matzen tells the story of Audrey Hepburn during the Second World War.
This book caught my attention for two reasons: I’ve always been an admirer of Audrey Hepburn and I wanted to  read more about her experience in Holland during WW II. Furthermore my mother was born in Oosterbeek during this period and I wanted to read more about the history of Arnhem, Velp and Oosterbeek in this period.
I vaguely remembered that  Audrey Hepburn had Dutch roots but didn’t realise that she had lived for a substantial period in the Netherlands during her childhood years.

I think the author did a great job and the book is very well documented. The background history on the Battle of Arnhem, operation market garden was very interesting even though I already knew quite a bit about this part of our history. The vivid description of the airborne parachutists coming down was very evocative even though I’ve seen the droppings that are staged every year on the Ginkelse heide so had a good idea what it would have looked like. I was especially impressed by the descriptions of the evacuations of Arnhem and Oosterbeek, the more because I remembered that my own ancestors were part of the evacuees too. 

I’ve recommended the book to my mother because I saw that there will be a translation in Dutch and the author will be in Oosterbeek in a couple of weeks to sign the book. I’m sure she will enjoy the book as much as I did.

I certainly recommend this book. Full marks.

I adore Audrey Hepburn, and this book gave me a good glimpse into a formative part of her life that isn't usually covered extensively in biographies. I loved learning even more about her, but my heart broke knowing what she had to go through, what all of them had to go through.

You know what makes Audrey Hepburn even more beautiful? Her soul. There's a part in the book where it talks about how WWII and her experiences made her who she was. It made her kind and compassionate and just plain lovely. Such dark atrocities made more light in the form of Audrey Hepburn.

You could go into this book expecting a biography of Audrey Hepburn which I did, but, dear reader, you get so much more.  This book shows in great detail how the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands effected its people by focusing on Audrey Hepburn and her family during this time.   It goes a long way to explain why Audrey was to become so passionate about her work with Unicef in her later years.  
This book is an incredible history lesson about the Netherlands during the war and informed me about episodes in the war that I knew nothing about, and I found it fascinating.  It highlighted just how brave the Dutch people under occupation were and the great lengths they went to help the allied forces.  
Well done to Matzen for writing this book.  By having Audrey as its focus I hope that many more people will read and come to know more about these little mentioned war time events and the bravery of the Dutch people.

An interesting, well written and well researched account of Audrey Hepburn and her experiences through five years of Nazi Occupation of her homeland  the Netherlands.

I always loved Audrey Hepburn and was extremely happy when i received an advance copy of Dutch Girl by Robert Matzen from #netgalley.  It is a well-written story of a girl who built her character during WWII in Denmark. We all know the woman she became-Audrey Hepburn. Before I read the book, I knew that she was born before the war and had to experience a great deal of suffering. Her life story, written by Robert Matzen, is not only an important part of her biography but also an example of a great character. I am sure that there were thousands of stories during the war that everyone needs to know and not to forget about. The book helps us to remember about the sufferings that Audrey, her family and millions more went through. During the war times everyone is equally getting hurt and humanity is the only thing left.

"But Audrey - that was a different story. Ella was determined that he own daughter would not be forbidden; she would be encouraged, funded, and promoted. So yes, Ella lived the life of a stage mother, unashamedly so, and yes, Ella put Audrey up on the stage at the Schouwburg in the Mozart tableau." 

I felt so terrible about Dutch Girl. I just could not finish it. I started it over a month ago, yet I always seemed to stay at one point in the book. I didn't make it past 50%. I think there were three things that did it for me: 

1. The novel itself. 
I thought this was going to be a historical fiction going in. I didn't realize that Dutch Girl was a biography of Audrey Hepburn's life. Already, I was super disappointed going in because of that. 

2. The details. 
Generally, I enjoy almost superfluous amounts of detail in books. Not in this. Every page was filled with excessive detail, for any book. I was skipping pages full of details because there was just so many. 

3. The lack of information about Audrey. 
Obviously, I didn't get through Dutch Girl in its entirety, so there may have been a lot more about Ms. Hepburn later in the book. However, I could not find much. For most of the time, Matzen was talking about Ella (Audrey's mother) and her ties to Hitler and Nazism, as well as the occupied Netherlands/Arnhem. While there were parts that talked more about Audrey's dancing, there wasn't enough in my mind, considering the book was about her.

Wow, I just didn't know any of this about Audrey Hepburn and it just continues to keep her on somewhat of a pedestal in my eyes. Fans of WWII fiction who want to know more about the Netherlands and its' own struggles will be interested in this.

I've always loved Audrey Hepburn, and knew a little about the struggles she faced during the war. I was excited to read this book, which I can highly recommend as being well-written, extremely well-researched and fascinating. It's quite extraordinary that despite her worldwide fame, she managed to keep her parent's political and ideological sympathies a secret.

I wanted to like this book, I was looking forward to reading about Audrey Hepburn’s life but I found it light on the Audrey and heavy on the family history.  Just not what I was expecting to read.

This book is a must-read for those interested in what World War 2 was like for those in occupied countries, and for fans of Audrey Hepburn who are interested in her early life.

This is an exhaustive—and somewhat exhausting—narrative about Audrey’s life in Arnhem/Velp through the years of occupation , the hunger winter, and final 9 months of bombing. Matzen combed through decades of her interviews, interviewed others who were also there, located published and unpublished memoirs, used a Dutch researcher to locate Dutch sources, and had the support (and sources) of her younger son. He also chronicles her rise to fame and her deft maneuvering to never discuss her mother’s early pro-Nazi stance and later investigation.

Interesting and very thoroughly researched.

I learned some interesting details about Audrey Hepburn's early life in Robert Matzen's Biography. However, I must admit that I was expecting to learn much more. Certainly, it was fascinating to learn about her family's on again off again relationship to prominent Nazis and how when those relationships soured, her once privileged family lost everything. 

What I was hoping for was more information about Audrey herself. Matzen's book focuses on her family, her community, and general background regarding how the Dutch fared during the Nazi occupation. I must admit, I was hoping to find more insights into her personal feelings, memories, etc. I suppose that she never revealed those to anyone or at least not to anyone willing to share them with Mr. Matzen.

This was a fascinating book, not only about a famous film star but also about Holland during World War Two. For me this was something I did not know a lot about. The detail of life in this Dutch village was moving. It took a lot of research, noted by the references. The author appears to try and be fair in his evaluation of the information available. I  am not from this generation, so I didn't feel biased in any way. The book appeared to be lengthy and not one I could read quickly but I wanted to finish it. It would be difficult to say I liked it, as the content is disturbing but it did help me understand things and the next time I see a film with Audrey Hepburn in I will see that from a different angle.