I Want it Now! A Memoir of Life on the Set of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (hardback)

Having picked this up as a free download a couple of years ago, I was finally prompted to read it following the sad death of Gene Wilder.Julie Dawn Cole takes us from surprisingly fraught childhood in Surrey, to a successful acting career; but the focus is firmly on the legendary Ronald Dahl adaptation, during the filming of which, in Germany, she celebrated her 13th birthday. We learn of jerry-built special effects, teenage crushes, and, a grumpy director aside, harmonious relations with everyone involved, particularly Gene Wilder and Roy Kinnear.The writers give us plenty of Hollywood context, as well as outlining the film's progress from commercial disappointment to cult classic. The storytelling is slightly gushing, as might be expected, but Ms Cole's affection for the experience of being Veruca Salt is infectious.One slight criticism is that the captions beneath the impressive collection of photographs tends to be overly repetitive of information contained within the main text.On the whole, though, this is an effortlessly likeable read.

In an age of the LOOK AT ME "celebrity" biography, this book comes as a true breath of fresh air.Julie Dawn Cole was a child actress from a modest background in suburban England when she was selected to play the rather vile Veruca Salt in "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and this is as much the story of the film as it is her story. We trace her route to the auditions, through her love of the theatre inherited from her mother, and how difficult it was for her to play a character so very different to her actual personality.The reader gets an excellent insight into the making of this film, remembered so fondly by many. It was a real challenge in a lot of ways - as much for the actors as for the production - and Julie Dawn really made me feel like I was there, through liberal use of anecdotes, photos and letters back home. It's clear that this was a bit of a lonely time for a young girl, despite having filming and rehearsals every day and schooling. She missed her family, and there are few who couldn't identify with that. It was nice to read how they all bonded, and the on-screen parents carried on that role off-screen.I won't give anything away about the film itself. Julie Dawn does then trace her career after the film and answers the age-old question, did they ever see each other again. In all, a rather good read, despite a couple of OCR errors in the Kindle edition and many Americanisms.

I downloaded this a freebie and once I started reading it I was hooked. Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca in Willy Wonka) wrote about the time she spent making the original Willy Wonka film and her experiences on set.This isn't a tell all book and there are no scandals or tales of arguments with cast members which are common in the majority of biographies today instead this is just a sweet book telling of Julie's time in Munich filming Willy Wonka.There are a lot of lovely photos included most of which Julie took herself on set. As Julie's mother was unable to get time off work to accompany her daughter on the shoot Julie had a chaporone while in Munich and so also included in the book are copies of postcards and letters that she wrote home to her mum and sister. My only complaint about these is that in a printed book they would have been fine but on the kindle version they are too small to be able to read and even though I changed the font size to it's maximum I still couldn't read them so was a bit disapppointed as I'm sure they would have been interesting to read.The book touches briefly on what Julie did later in her career but mainly focuses on her time in the film.Overall a very good read and one of the best freebies I've had in a while.

Being able to remember Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory being on TV virtually every Bank Holiday when I was growing up and therefore having it indelibly ingrained into my innate geekiness, this was a bit of a must-read. Especially as a Kindle freebie!It's a fun, light, entertaining view of Julie Dawn Cole's experiences during the making of the film and a potted history of her subsequent career and life.Every page exudes nostalgia for the film and the only question I'm left with is "Is the film on TV over Easter as I need to watch it again now?"

didnt know anything at all about julie apart from her role in willy wonka. from humble beginnings she landed this part and made it her own.i enjoyed the book and read it in record time. on the plus side the book was full of pictures, which i found fascintating.the one snag? it also had letters and greetings from other memeber of the cast, which in a printed book would have been fine, unfortunately on my kindle they appeared very tiny, maybe i need better glasses? because i found them too small to actually read and this limited the enjoyment of book.