Just Finished Reading: Mary Poppins by P L Travers (FP: 1934) [161pp] 

The East Wind it seems is a lucky wind. With the children’s nanny leaving without giving notice life at No 17, Cherry Tree Lane was going to get a lot more difficult. Until, that is, there was a knock at the door. The children had seen her arrive although they still couldn’t believe their eyes. The woman, who they were about to find out was their new nanny, had floated to earth held up by an umbrella. Refusing to take a No for an answer and refusing to offer any references, Mary Poppins installed herself at No 17 and would stay, she said, until the wind changed direction. The children, and indeed the rest of the household, had no idea what was going to happen next. For the children it could be summed up in a single word: adventure. 

Along, no doubt with the rest of the world, I was delighted as a child by the 1964 Disney adaptation of this book starring the delightful Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke (complete with very questionable Cockney accent). So, it was both interesting and confusing to note the vast differences – from memory – between book and movie. One thing that struck me straightaway was that, in the book(s), Mary Poppins seemed to be a lot darker as well as far less sociable. What also struck me, or at least made me ponder, is the probability that Mary wasn’t exactly human. Her use of magic on a regular basis, I thought, as well as other magic users reactions to her and especially her encounters with magical/intelligent animals put her somewhat beyond the simple ‘human using magic’ narrative. It seemed that Mary had been around for a VERY long time and that she was held in HIGH regard by other magic users who often seemed something more than human themselves. The character of Mary seemed to be either an Elemental or, possibly, a Fae – at least that’s my THEORY. 

This short book (the first of four I think) was essentially a series of a single self-contained story per chapter presumably as a format for bedtime reading. Each has a kind of moral teaching to the young without being too heavy about it. Being now almost 100 years old there are some rather quaint moments and the British class system is very much front and centre. I’m not sure if children, even young children, would find it particularly readable but it does have a generally pleasant ‘tone’ to it which I liked. Strange, amusing and often bizarre – especially when compared to the Disney version – this was quite an interesting read and is one more of the previously unread Children’s Classics off my list!