Mary Poppins, She Wrote, Valerie Lawson
Mary Poppins, She Wrote, Valerie Lawson
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

Mary Poppins, She Wrote
The Life of P. L. Travers

Author: Valerie Lawson

Narrator: Terry Donnelly

Unabridged: 14 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/03/2013


Synopsis

THE ONLY TRUE STORY BEHIND THE CREATOR OF MARY POPPINS

The remarkable life of P.L. Travers, the creator of Mary Poppins—perfect for fans of the movie Mary Poppins Returns and the original Disney classic!

“An arresting life…Lawson is superb at excavating the details.” —Library 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 children’s book that was instantly hailed as a classic, then became a household name when Julie Andrews stepped into the title role in Walt Disney’s 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 Poppins’ 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 “thinking you know more about Mary Poppins than I do,” was as tart and opinionated as Julie Andrews’s big-screen Mary Poppins was cheery. Yet it was a love of mysticism and magic that shaped Travers’s 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 Lawson’s illuminating biography provides the first full look whose personal journey is as intriguing as her beloved characters.

About Valerie Lawson

Valerie Lawson is a feature writer for The Sydney Morning Herald. Her previous books are Connie Sweetheart and The Allens Affair. She lives in Sydney and London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kressel on January 30, 2015

I became interested in this book because of the biopic about Pamela Travers, “Saving Mr. Banks,” but what turned it into a must-read was finding out from other reviews that Travers was a devotee of Gurdjieff. I dabbled in the Gurdjieff method myself in college, and I had been profoundly affected by......more

Goodreads review by Sharon on March 02, 2014

I wanted to read this book after seeing the movie Saving Mr. Banks, which had both an excellent cast and strong writing. I normally love biographies, but this one honestly was boring and difficult to finish. The author, Valerie Lawson, did lots of research, and at times tried (rather heavy handedly)......more

Goodreads review by Leslie on November 08, 2013

You know the expression, "S/he wore his/her learning lightly"? Well, in this book, Valerie Lawson does just the opposite...she wears her research heavily. So heavily that it weighs her down. Parts of this biography were very interesting; unfortunately, what was most interesting was the analysis of th......more