P. L. Travers
P. L. Travers
Pamela Lyndon Travers, OBEwas an Australian-born British novelist, actress, and journalist who emigrated to England and lived most of her adult life there. She is known best for the Mary Poppins series of children's books featuring the magical English nanny Mary Poppins...
NationalityAustralian
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth9 August 1899
CountryAustralia
dog men views
I've felt that if I just used initials nobody would know whether I was a man or a woman, a dog or a tiger. I could hide from view, like a bat on the underside of a branch.
children book men
Children's books are looked on as a sideline of literature. A special smile. They are usually thought to be associated with women. I was determined not to have this label of sentimentality put on me so I signed by my intials, hoping people wouldn't bother to wonder if the books were written by a man, woman or kangaroo.
family
My family didn't like me going on the stage, and they didn't much like my being a writer, either.
bearer glad
For me, there are no answers, only questions, and I am grateful that the questions go on and on. I don't look for an answer because I don't think there is one. I'm very glad to be the bearer of a question.
life myth poetry wall written
Nothing I had written before 'Mary Poppins' had anything to do with children, and I have always assumed, when I thought about it at all, that she had come out of the same wall of nothingness as the poetry, myth and legend that had absorbed me all my writing life.
curtain life
I think the idea of 'Mary Poppins' has been blowing in and out of me, like a curtain at a window, all my life.
I never wrote my books especially for children.
age child itself loving needs
Every child needs to have for itself not only its loving parents and siblings and friends of its own age, but a grown-up friend.
along beloved bit brought died elderly favorite life man
My father died when I was 7. I was his favorite child, and he was my beloved father. I brought him along with me all through my life. Every elderly man has a bit of my father in him for me.
angel apart conquer pure quite
I've had quite a lot to conquer in myself apart from writing. Not that I've been a pure angel when I come to the end of it.
I cannot summon up inspiration; I myself am summoned.
lies
Sorrow lies like a heartbeat behind everything I have written.
cannot grasp subtle terms translated
I think that 'Mary Poppins' needs a subtle reader, in many respects, to grasp all its implications, and I understand that these cannot be translated in terms of the film.
based books created favorite hindu lord monkey myth wherever
'Friend Monkey' is really my favorite of all my books because the Hindu myth on which it is based is my favorite - the myth of the Monkey Lord who loved so much that he created chaos wherever he went.