THE ONLY TRUE STORY BEHIND THE CREATOR OF MARY POPPINS
The remarkable life of P.L. Travers, the creator of Mary Poppinsâperfect for fans of the movie Mary Poppins Returns and the original Disney classic!
âAn arresting lifeâŠLawson is superb at excavating the details.â âLibrary Journal
The spellbinding stories of Mary Poppins, the quintessentially English and utterly magical nanny, have been loved by generations. She flew into the lives of the unsuspecting Banks family in a childrenâs book that was instantly hailed as a classic, then became a household name when Julie Andrews stepped into the title role in Walt Disneyâs hugely successful and equally classic film. But the Mary Poppins in the stories was not the cheery film character. She was tart and sharp, plain and vain. She was a remarkable character.
The story of Mary Poppinsâ creator, as this definitive biography reveals, is equally remarkable. The fabulous English nanny was actually conceived by an Australian, Pamela Lyndon Travers, who came to London in 1924 from Queensland as a journalist. She became involved with Theosophy, traveled in the literary circles of W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot, and became a disciple of the famed spiritual guru, Gurdjieff. She famously clashed with Walt Disney over the adaptation of the Mary Poppins books into film. Travers, whom Disney accused of vanity for âthinking you know more about Mary Poppins than I do,â was as tart and opinionated as Julie Andrewsâs big-screen Mary Poppins was cheery. Yet it was a love of mysticism and magic that shaped Traversâs life as well as the character of Mary Poppins. The clipped, strict, and ultimately mysterious nanny who emerged from her pen was the creation of someone who remained inscrutable and enigmatic to the end of her ninety-six years.
Valerie Lawsonâs illuminating biography provides the first full look whose personal journey is as intriguing as her beloved characters.
