I loved this book! Hayley Mills was THE actress of my childhood. Even though I grew up in the 80/90s due to my strict parents we weren’t able to watch anything but old movies. I loved reading all the behind the scenes stuff and hear about her life. I do feel like this only lightly skimmed the surface of her life and it did end abruptly making me wonder if she has a second book planned.

I have loved Hayley Mills since seeing her in all my childhood favorites like, The Parent Trap, Pollyanna & Summer Magic. What an amazing, interesting life she leads! I even adored her on that early 'Saved by the Bell' pre-show, "Miss Bliss.'
I can only imagine how popular an audio book would be if Ms. Mills herself is reading it. What a truly lovely memoir.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early e-galley of this wonderful memoir.*

Celebrity memoirs are a genre I don't dive into much but when I do, it's usually for someone who I absolutely adore and I usually devour them up quickly. Hayley Mills' FOREVER YOUNG is no exception! THE PARENT TRIP (the better, original version :D) is one of my all-time favorite movies and I've seen it so many times that I can pretty much lip-sync the dialogue at this point. However, as much as I love that movie, I hadn't really seen anything else Mills had been in! Therefore, it was fun to follow along her going through her career as a Disney child actor and into young adulthood, watching the trailers on YouTube and even watching all of POLLYANNA for the first time.

Mills has so many fascinating stories about 1960s Hollywood including Walt Disney being a father-figure to her (and taking her and her brother on a private tour of Disneyland!), going on a date with George Harrison, growing up with a father, brother, and sister also in the movie business, and so many other fun tidbits about old celebrities and glamorous LA and London. We also get glimpses into her personal life, including her only marriage to a film director 32 years older than her (gulp). Mills is clearly a fantastic writer, and I hope she writes another book! I say this because my only complaint was that the book ends a bit abruptly, in her early 20s, and yes while this book is about us seeing her as "forever young" I also would love to hear about the rest of her fascinating life.

Hayley Mills, born into a famous acting family, shares memories from her early career working for Walt Disney to her transition into adult roles. It was interesting to find out more about this iconic performer whose life was not always sunshine and roses. A marriage to a controlling abusive man much older than her nearly destroyed her career, the joys of motherhood to her two sons and her recollections of the famous people she worked with or encountered made this a very heartwarming and enjoyable memoir.

This inside look at the life of child star Hayley Mills is equal parts heartwarming and surprising- and always satisfying. Mills has the voice of an accomplished writer (a talent passed down by her mother) and makes us, the reader, feel as if we are really there on her adventures. Though Mills is candid and open, the memoir is never gossipy and her positive tone permeates throughout, making this a delightful and nostalgic read.

Having been one of the many young girls who wanted to "be" Hayley Mills, I was so excited to see this new memoir. The chapters of her early years and beginnings with Walt Disney charmed me. I enjoyed learning so much more about her entire family and the multitudes of famous people in the industry that her parents' connections and her work enabled her to meet and get to know. I loved hearing about the roles that got away. Her reality was sometimes markedly different from the public image portrayed to the world, and she seems candid about both the many advantages and also the serious drawbacks. I enjoyed her writing style and am hoping she will write a second volume covering more of her later life and career. .

"Iconic actress Hayley Mills shares personal memories from her storied childhood, growing up in a famous acting family and becoming a Disney child star, trying to grow up in a world that wanted her to stay forever young.

The daughter of acclaimed British actor Sir John Mills was still a preteen when she began her acting career and was quickly thrust into the spotlight. Under the wing of Walt Disney himself, Hayley Mills was transformed into one of the biggest child starlets of the 1960s through her iconic roles in Pollyanna, The Parent Trap, and many more. She became one of only twelve actors in history to be bestowed with the Academy Juvenile Award, presented at the Oscars by its first recipient, Shirley Temple, and went on to win a number of awards including a Golden Globe, multiple BAFTAs, and a Disney Legacy Award.

Now, in her charming and forthright memoir, she provides a unique window into when Hollywood was still 'Tinseltown' and the great Walt Disney was at his zenith, ruling over what was (at least in his own head) still a family business. This behind-the-scenes look at the drama of having a sky-rocketing career as a young teen in an esteemed acting family will offer both her childhood impressions of the wild and glamorous world she was swept into, and the wisdom and broader knowledge that time has given her. Hayley will delve intimately into her relationship with Walt Disney, as well as the emotional challenges of being bound to a wholesome, youthful public image as she grew into her later teen years, and how that impacted her and her choices - including marrying a producer over 30 years her senior when she was 20! With her regrets, her joys, her difficulties, and her triumphs, this is a compelling read for any fan of classic Disney films and an inside look at a piece of real Hollywood history."

If you're off a certain age Hayley Mills was everything. Your parents grew up on her films and spoon-fed them to you. And let us never forget The Parent Trap sequels that I devoured as a kid!

Haley Mills wrote a wonderful memoir of her career and family life in the 60’s and 70’s. This child star of numerous Disney movies was candid about her acting career and about her famous acting family, particularly her father, actor, John Mills. A must read: “Forever Young”, for everyone that remembers her in “The Parent Trap”, “ Pollyanna”, and many more movies outside the Disney franchise!

A solid celebrity/Hollywood memoir, if limited in scope. And it IS limited in scope--read if you're a fan of Hayley Mills' childhood/classic career and would like a view into that period of her life. From that perspective, I did enjoy it. However, the memoir cuts off at the point Hayley has her first child... which is in the late 70s! So you don't get the last 40 years of her life. Which, ya know, does she owe us every single spec of her life? No, but I was a bit surprised. I had been looking forward to that part--it sounds silly but because I was born in the 80s and came up with early Disney Channel subculture (I didn't have cable but I still knew the shows!), I was really hoping to hear about Good Morning Miss Bliss and The Parent Trap 2. Maybe even her perspective on seeing The Parent Trap remade for a new generation.

That said, Mills' is a lovely writer--perhaps why I wanted to read more? No surprise her mother was a writer, and a bit of a surprise Hayley's never had a go at it before this with a novel or something. I was impressed at points, especially her journals when she was younger. Her maturity and imagination come through.

And overall, it's lovely to spend time with her--she's very obviously a kind, lovely person. She has nothing but nice things to say about pretty much everyone, except for one actor she's very honest about being a misogynist. She also grew up surrounded by some seriously famous people (not just her dad) and it's kind of a trip to read her casually name-dropping "Uncle Dickie" (Richard Attenborough) or Larry and Joan--Sir Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright (and Vivien Leigh also gets a mention). She also speaks lovingly though realistically about Walt Disney--I liked how she recognized he was absolutely warm and wonderful on a personal level, but also a shrewd businessman. You also get insights into her parents and how she grew up--I wasn't super familiar with her parents, but I'm sure Brits will find it all pretty fascinating.

A solid memoir to get a snippet of a bit of Old Hollywood (as it was fading in the 60s) and a childhood icon. I have a soft spot for Hayley Mills--I've always loved her! The one sadness for me is she keeps calling herself fat, and she does briefly acknowledge she had an eating disorder at the time, but like lord. She was never fat! Hayley was always gorgeous. I hate that she was made to feel that way :(

Forever Young: A Memoir by actress Hayley Mills chronicles her recollections of her childhood when she became a Disney star to transitioning to grownup roles. Hayley was championed by Walt Disney himself in such movies as Pollyanna, The Parent Trap, and That Darn Cat. The daughter of actor John Mills and playwright Mary Hayley Bell, Mills found her transition from a wholesome teen to more mature roles difficult as fans wanted her to stay “forever young.”

Mills offers a look into her family, and if readers thought she lived a charmed life, she did, but not without obstacles. She shared her parents with an older sister, the actress Juliet Mills, and a younger brother Jonathan Mills. While she had a marvelous relationship with her father, she often found herself at odds with her mother, who she felt drank too much. Mills also experienced the fate of other child actors whose income was never realized as the Crown received most of it.

While the scope of the book covers her childhood through the birth of her first child, there is still much opportunity for another memoir about her adult life…and I, as a great fan from childhood on, hope that she will take a breath then write the second half of her memoirs.

Hayley Mills was born in London, where she currently resides. Born in 1946, she made her first appearance in films in 1959 in Tiger Bay, starring her father. Living in California for many years, she starred in “Good Morning, Miss Bliss,” the Disney forerunner of “Saved by the Bell,” more material that could be mined for a second memoir.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting July 25, 2021.

I would like to thank Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

I was excited to read Hayley Mill’s biography as I grew up with her films and still rewatch them today. While it was interesting to read about how she got her start, her relationship with Disney, and behind the scene tidbits, overall the book dragged.

This book is a disappointment in that it was a sort of memoir that tended to ramble about other people and films/plays and only covers basically the first half of her life with later years rushed in the last couple of chapters. It would have greatly enhanced if it was written by a biographer who would have helped keep the author focused.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog.

I remember playing my VHS tape of Pollyanna, then rewinding and beginning again, over and over and over. Imagine my excitement to see a biography of this talented actress coming across my radar! Unfortunately, the pace of the book was plodding, filled with list of films and theatre performances and endless but brief comments about co-stars and co-workers that did not lend to the development of the story. What began as what I had hoped would be an introspection, ended as a dry retelling. I'm disappointed that this didn't live up to they hype I had in my head.