Mary Poppins arrives with the wind, and intervenes in the lives of ordinary humans, making magic, but never admitting that it has taken place. She understands the language of animals and birds, and between her visits to mortals returns to some secret source. Although the Poppins books have much in common with other works of children's literature - all the way back to the early 19th century and ETA Hoffmann's inspiration of making toys come alive - Travers was adamant that she didn't write specifically for children, and that there was no such thing as children's books. Poppins, she said, 'had come up of the same well of nothingness as the poetry, myths and legends that had absorbed me all my writing life.' This was something else that connected Travers to Disney, who maintained that his films were not directed at children, but at the innocence within us all.

Literature·Magic·Children·Myth