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Mary Poppins, She Wrote

The Life of P. L. Travers

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About this listen

 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. Art & Literature Authors Entertainment & Celebrities Women Celebrity Magic Biography Classics
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If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

Someone who likes to know minute detail about someone's life together with a fascination with rather strange views on life. I persevered to the end but would never listen to it again. I found many of the characters were of little interest to me.
I also found the narrator's voice to be either grating or very dull.

What will your next listen be?

?

Would you be willing to try another one of Terry Donnelly’s performances?

no

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Mary Poppins, She Wrote?

The mass of detail about everyone P L Travers ever seems to have met. I understand that Pamela left a mass of papers and the biographer was not nearly sufficiently selective.

Long-winded and rather pedantic

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Although some of the information about P L Travers is interesting it came across as very dry and boring. The second half of the book is just describing the various characters and stories in Mary Poppins . The presenters voice eventually ground me down and I had to give up.
Sadly I would not recommend this book and certainly not the audible version.

I tried so hard to Enjoy this book.

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What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I found it painfully slow

Has Mary Poppins, She Wrote put you off other books in this genre?

I usually enjoy biographical works but this was just hard work

Gave up

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