Up in the sky a tiny spark hovered and swayed in the darkness. What could it be...? Still they waited. And still the spark grew ever larger and brighter. Then suddenly Jane caught her breath. And Michael gave a gasp. Down came the spark, growing longer and wider. And as it came, it took on a shape that was strange and also familiar. Out of the glowing core of light emerged a curious figure - a figure in a black straw hat and a blue coat trimmed with silver buttons.

Author Biography

P.L. Travers, born in 1899, grew up on a sugar plantation in Australia, one of three sisters. Pamela deliberately kept her life very private. She lived for a while in Ireland and London, and travelled frequently to America, where she was made writer in residence to both Smith and Radcliffe Colleges in Massachusetts. She also received an honorary doctorate from Chatham College, Pittsburgh. Although she worked as a secretary, a dancer and an actress, writing was P.L. Travers' real love, and for many years she was a journalist. It was while she was recuperating from a serious illness that she wrote Mary Poppins - 'to while away the days, but also to put down something that had been in my mind for a long time,' she said. She wrote eight Mary Poppins books altogether and several other children's books as well as adult books.