"Like all great children's classics, Mary Poppins is frightening and sad as well as magic and very funny" Observer "As I grow older I realise how much of my world view was created by Pamela Travers and Mary Shepard, her illustrator, or perhaps how much they took the things that children thought about the world and made them real, and gave us one adult who was, ultimately, on our side." Neil Gaiman "Absolutely alive, and aglint with magic" Walter de la Mare Mary Poppins is the Good Fairy, whom we are all seeking" Times Literary Supplement

P.L. Travers was born in 1899 in Maryborough in Queensland, Australia and was one of three sisters. She was brought up simply, but traditionally, with a cook upon whom much of the character of Mary Poppins is based. She began her writing career in Australia, publishing many poems, then came to England and wrote for newspapers in Ireland and England. She began Mary Poppins 'out of the blue', while lying ill in bed. It was published in 1934, was an immediate success and was followed by another five books.