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P.L. Travers, born in 1899, grew up on a sugar plantation in Australia, and was one of three sisters. She worked as a secretary, a dancer and an actress, but writing was P.L. Travers's real love, and for many years she was a journalist. It was while recuperating from a serious illness that she wrote Mary Poppins -- to while away the days, but also to put down something that had been in my mind for a long time , she said. She recieved an OBE in 1977, and died in 1996.
Like all great children's classics Mary Poppins is frightening and sad as well as magic and very funny. The Observer Absolutely alive, and aglint with magic. Walter de la Mare
