Julie Andrews and Daughter Emma Walton Hamilton Pen a Love Letter to Music and Nature

In their new book 'The Enchanted Symphony,' Julie Andrews and her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton celebrate the necessity of nature and the healing power of music

For Dame Julie Andrews and her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton, finishing each other’s sentences is a way of life, both on and off the page. The pair have collaborated on more than 30 books so far, mostly for young children, though they’ve also co-authored novels for adults, along with anthologies of songs and poems.

Their latest, publishing Sept. 12, is titled The Enchanted Symphony and was inspired by a photograph both mother and daughter found, well, enchanting. The picture showed a concert that had taken place in 2020 in a grand theater in Barcelona. The theater had just reopened following COVID-19 lockdown. A string quartet performed Puccini, but not for the typical music lovers: all the seats in the audience were filled instead with plants. It was called the Concert for the Biocene, an offering of human art for the benefit of the natural world we so often either take for granted, or actively harm.

When Andrews spotted the image, she was stunned by its beauty.

“It was so astounding, the concept was so astounding, and we thought there must be a story there. And so we researched and looked it up,” she tells PEOPLE.

“I think it spoke to us because during COVID, which was when we wrote this, we were so keenly aware of our local arts organizations, as well as Broadway,” says Walton Hamilton. “All the cinemas and the theaters were being shuttered and really struggling. And we were also keenly aware of how much time and joy we were spending in nature as a sort of a replacement. I mean, we always...we are great nature enthusiasts, and we always spend as much time outdoors as we can, in the garden and so forth.”

“I love my garden,” adds Andrews, who boasts not only a green thumb but also a rose variety named for her.

“So when we saw this image, it seemed such a fusion of those two things,” her daughter adds.

Related: Julie Andrews Launches New 'Storytime' Podcast with Daughter to 'Bring Families Together'

In The Enchanted Symphony, illustrated by Elly MacKay, a small boy named Piccolino loves helping his father in the symphony hall — until one day a mysterious fog rolls into their happy village, forcing the townspeople to stay inside and stop enjoying the simple pleasures they once had. Was the fog meant to represent COVID-19, which had shuttered concert halls in the US that summer?

“Well, we don't want to write about COVID. We don't want to date the story. But is there something else that would prevent people from going outside, that would prevent people from taking advantage,” Walton Hamilton says. Her mother adds, “It sort of represents the ennui, the closeted feeling that we had and everybody had with Covid, as you know.” 

The miasma could symbolize more than one pandemic, of course. “As we were writing, we realized that it also represented not just COVID, but anything that threatens to distract us from the pleasures in life,” says Walton Hamilton. “We sort of realized that we should lean into this as well, because it's not just about a pandemic. It's really about anything that threatens to distract us from life's simple joys.”

Once the fog has settled in, the only thing that can drive it away is Piccolino’s hopeful melody, first plunked on the piano alone, and then performed before an audience of plants, just as in the Symphony for Biocene picture.

Both Andrews and Walton Hamilton say they researched the subjects of music and plants, but they also allowed themselves to imagine the magical nature of it.

"There's a lot of mystery and magic in nature and in music, and I think that is really what appealed to us, to try to capture the essence of…“ Walton Hamilton begins, and Andrews continues, “and make it into a sort of...I don't know if allegory is the right word. Fable.”

Working together, both mother and daughter agree, is a joy.

Related: Julie Andrews' 3 Daughters: Everything to Know

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“I don't think I could write much now without you, my darling,” says Andrews. “We have different strengths. She's great at all the structure, first act, second act, third act, that kind of thing. Because she really does know the children's [literature] world, since she teaches and she's part of it, very much so. I do more of the fantasy aspects, like the opening and closing of the book and the ends of chapters, and the turning left once in a while or right once in a while.”

Walton Hamilton continues, “A picture book, it's such a beautiful art form.” And, she goes on, working as mother and daughter “keeps us in a sort of wonderful, creative environment that frees us up from some of the other stuff that could cause tension. It's a welcome place for us to go and escape to and play in and be creative.” 

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