P. L. Travers

Pamela Lyndon Travers, OBE (/ˈtrævərs/; born Helen Lyndon Goff; 9 August 1899 – 23 April 1996), was an Australian-born British novelist, actress, and journalist who migrated 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.

Upon immigrating to England in 1924, Goff began to write under the pen name P. L. Travers. In 1933 she began writing the novel Mary Poppins, first of the Poppins books. During World War II, while working for the British Ministry of Information, Travers traveled to New York City. At that time Walt Disney contacted her about selling to Disney Studios the rights for a film adaptation of Mary Poppins, whose sequel Mary Poppins Comes Back was also in print. After years of contact, Walt Disney did obtain the rights and the Disney film Mary Poppins premièred in 1964. In 2004, a new, British musical theatre adaptation of the books and the film opened in the West End; it premièred on Broadway in 2006.

For services to literature, Travers was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1977.

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