MARY POPPINS SHE WROTE BY VALERIE LAWSON, HACHETTE, $24.99.
Australian-born author P.L. (Pamela Lyndon) Travers, creator of Mary Poppins, was never Australian at heart. She couldn’t wait to leave behind her largely lonely childhood, great aunt, mother and two younger sisters, to sail to Ireland in 1924, where her London-born drifter, charmer, drinker father claimed to have been born.
A gifted journalist, poet and actress, she forged crucial relationships with great writers of the time, including W.B. Yeats and George William “A.E.” Russell, editor of the Irish Statesman. However, she preferred live-in companionship with women and adopted one half of a set of twin boys from Dublin, whom she raised in Europe and America. She gave life to Mary Poppins in 1926, the character’s complex nature a reflection of her own life. A childhood maid of the author’s owned a parrot-headed umbrella and a small Lyndon, as she was known as a child, once tried to sell herself to gypsies, but they turned her down.
Although she thoroughly approved of Julie Andrews’ Walt Disney on-screen portrayal, Travers’ Poppins was not the cheery singing nanny. “She was tart and sharp, rude, plain and vain. That was her charm, that and her mystery,” says Lawson. A truly engaging, thought-provoking and well-researched biography.
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