I was awfully fond of the Mary Poppins book as a child.

Julie Andrews and her stand in on the Sound of Music set. 

Her name was Larri Thomas and, interestingly, she also had a bit part in "Mary Poppins" as the woman who blows a kiss to Bert (Dick Van Dyke) in "Chim Chim Cheree"

Fact and Fiction.

The Mary Poppins books were as beloved by me as the Narnia, Oz and  Borrowers stories.  I remember reading an article about how difficult Walt Disney found P.L. Travers to work with.  As I always find a  background story fascinating,  I'm greatly looking forward to this film!

Here we have the back story of a character rather than creator.  I'll admit to having a life long fascination with Disney's straight (non-comic) villains, particularly Maleficent, Queen Grimhilde(Snow White's evil step mother) and lady Tremaine (Cinderella's evil stepmother)