Was Mary Poppins Nanny McPhee's Aunt?

At Christmas 1964, my Grandmother took me to the cinema to see Mary Poppins. I loved it! Julie Andrews singing, Dick Van Dyke’s crazy dancing [ignore his appalling accent] and the lovely views of London [we were living in cold County Durham then, which felt like the far north to me. I missed the Metropolis]I scoured the library for more P L Travers.

When I won my Sunday School Prizes that year, they came in the form of book tokens [My Dad had suggested that it was better to give children a choice, rather than foist unwanted books on them] I spent mine on Mary Poppins in the Park

There were 8 Poppins books – five written between 1934-52, one which came out just before the film, and 2 in the 1980s [I don’t think I read them] At the end of my book, it simply says “Chelsea, London, March 1952 G. I. E. D.” Dad explained that was Gloria in Excelsis Deo  - Glory to God in The Highest. Which seemed a little odd to me at the time.

Then Morgan, thoughtful as ever, read my post where I mentioned the new film and offered to lend me her DVD. We watched it over the Bank Holiday weekend. It was charming. It tells two stories – how Walt Disney promised his daughters he would make a film of their favourite book, and the difficulties he had persuading the author to let him – and alongside that, the story of P L Travers childhood, and her relationship with her father.The film was clever, witty, and happy – and alongside that, was thought-provoking and poignant. The Sherman brothers [played by  B J Novak and Jason Schwartzman] were utterly brilliant, as they sat at the piano and created the songs for the film [alarmingly, it appears that Bob and I seem to know all the words!] and Annie Rose Buckley plays a wonderful Ginty [Ginty was PL Travers childhood nickname – she was born Helen Lyndon Goff, and her parents were Travers and Margaret] But my favourite characters were Walt Disney himself and Pamela Travers. WD was Tom Hanks [is it me, or do other people think he is becoming the 21st century’s equivalent of James Stewart?] and PLT was Emma Thompson. That woman is so gifted!

 

But having enjoyed Morgan’s DVD, I took my 50 year-old Poppins down from the shelf to read it again. And i struck me that Nanny McPhee owes an awful lot to Ms Travers, and Miss Poppins. PLT would not let Walt make any more films, but some of the ideas in later MP books do seem to have crept into the Nanny McPhee stuff. These nannies only hang about whilst they are needed, and they fly off when the wind changes!

Thank you Morgan for lending me the DVD, definitely a *****

Spit spot! Let’s go fly a kite, or feed the birds!