Forever Young: a Memoir by Hayley Mills

 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.