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Pamela Lyndon Travers OBE (9 August 1899 – 23 April 1996) was the creator of the famous fictional nanny known as Mary Poppins, from the book of the same name.

She was born Helen Lyndon Goff in Maryborough, Queensland, Australia, to bank manager Travers Robert Goff and Margaret Agnes (née Morehead).

Travers began to have her poems published while still a teenager and wrote for The Bulletin and Triad while also gaining a reputation as an actress. She toured Australia and New Zealand with a Shakespearean touring company before leaving for England in 1924. There she dedicated herself to writing under the pen name P. L. Travers (the two first initials were used to disguise a woman's name, a practice also adopted by other female writers, such as J. K. Rowling).

The 1934 publication of Mary Poppins was Travers' first literary success. A number of sequels would follow, as well as a collection of novels, poetry collections and non-fiction works. A Disney musical film version of the Mary Poppins stories was released in 1964. Though the character of Mary Poppins in the film would differ from Travers' original conception, she made sure to impose certain changes on, and insist that she must approve the screenplay of the adaptation.

Travers was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1977. She died in London in 1996.

Although Travers never married, she adopted a boy when she was in her late 30s.

Pamela Lyndon Travers OBE (9 August 1899 – 23 April 1996) was the creator of the famous fictional nanny known as Mary Poppins, from the book of the same name. She was born Helen Lyndon Goff in Maryborough, Queensland, Australia, to bank manager Travers Robert Goff and Margaret Agnes (née Morehead). Travers began to have her poems published while still a teenager and wrote for The Bulletin and... More