Mary Poppins

Posted by Helen Brain Oct 4, 2009

I've been reading an interesting biography of P.L. Travers, the Australian born writer who wrote Mary Poppins.

She was a complex person, always searching for spiritual fulfillment and a personal guru who would feed her hunger for love, acceptance and a satisfying long term relationship.

The Mary Poppins books only made her a fortune after Disney's film starring Julie Andrews was made in the mid sixties. She died a very wealthy, but lonely woman, desperate for recognition. Most poignant is the way she tried to get a bronze statue of Mary Poppins erected in New York's Central Park, to join the existing statues of Alice in Wonderland and Hans Christian Anderson.

The attempt failed, as only $2100 dollars was raised, $2000 of it contributed by Travers herself.

It was a sad end to a sad life.

Read more about P.L.Travers in Mary Poppins she Wrote The Life of P.L.Travers by Valerie Lawson. It is published by Aurum, ISBN 9781845131265