Mary Poppins, neat and prim in blue skirt and a new hat trimmed with a crimson tulip, looked at the children over her knitting. She was sitting bolt upright against the tree, with a plaid rug spread on the lawn around her. Her handbag sat tidily by her side. And above her, from a flowering branch, the parrot umbrella dangled. She gave a little sniff.

'This is the fourth book about Mary Poppins.'

"Absolutely alive, and aglint with magic."
Walter de la Mare

"Like all great children's classics, 'Mary Poppins' is frightening and sad as well as magic and very funny."
'Observer'

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.