Editing P. L. Travers (section)

== Personal life ==
Travers was reluctant to share details about her personal life, saying she "most identified with Anonymous as a writer" and asked whether "biographies are of any use at all". [[Patricia Demers]] was allowed to interview her in 1988 but not to ask about her personal life.<ref name=":0" />

[[File:P.L. Travers by Gertrude Hermes 04.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|Bust of P. L. Travers, c. 1944, by [[Gertrude Hermes]], [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]], London]]
Travers never married.<ref name=":0" /> Though she had numerous fleeting relationships with men throughout her life, she lived for more than a decade with Madge Burnand. They shared a London flat from 1927 to 1934, then moved to Pound Cottage near [[Mayfield and Five Ashes|Mayfield]], East Sussex, where Travers published the first of the ''Mary Poppins'' books. Their relationship, in the words of one biographer{{who|date=April 2024}}, was "intense", but equally ambiguous.

At the age of 40, two years after moving out on her own, Travers adopted a baby boy from Ireland whom she named Camillus Travers. He was the grandchild of [[Joseph Maunsel Hone|Joseph Hone]], the first biographer of [[George Moore (novelist)|George Moore]] and [[W. B. Yeats]], who was raising his seven grandchildren with his wife. Camillus was unaware of his true parentage or the existence of any siblings until the age of 17, when Anthony Hone, his twin brother, came to London and knocked on the door of Travers's house at 50 Smith Street, Chelsea.{{clarify|reason=What did Camillus learn from Anthony about their true parentage?|date=September 2024}} He had been drinking and demanded to see his brother. Travers refused and threatened to call the police. Anthony left but, soon after, following an argument with Travers, Camillus went looking for his brother and found him in a pub on [[King's Road]].<ref name="hone">{{cite news|last1=Hone|first1=Joseph|date=6 December 2013|title=Steely, self-centred, controlling — the Mary Poppins I knew|work=Irish Examiner|url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/steely-self-centred-controlling-the-mary-poppins-i-knew-251767.html|access-date=8 June 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Minus|first=Jodie|date=10–11 April 2004|title=There's something about Mary|page=R6|newspaper=The Weekend Australian}}</ref> Anthony had been fostered and raised by the family of the essayist [[Hubert Butler]] in Ireland. Through Camillus, Travers had three grandchildren.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Fox |first1=Margalit |title=P. L. Travers, Creator of the Magical and Beloved Nanny Mary Poppins, Is Dead at 96 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/25/arts/p-l-travers-creator-of-the-magical-and-beloved-nanny-mary-poppins-is-dead-at-96.html |website=The New York Times|date=25 April 1996 }}</ref>

Travers was appointed [[Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire|Officer of the Order of the British Empire]] (OBE) in the [[1977 New Year Honours]]. The investiture ceremony took place later that year at [[Buckingham Palace]], with the [[Prince Edward, Duke of Kent|Duke of Kent]] standing in for Queen [[Elizabeth II]]. She died in London on 23 April 1996 at the age of 96.<ref name="rochlin2">{{cite news|last=Rochlin|first=Margy|date=3 January 2014|title=Not Quite All Spoonfuls of Sugar: Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson Discuss ''Saving Mr. Banks''|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/movies/awardsseason/tom-hanks-and-emma-thompson-discuss-saving-mr-banks.html|access-date=5 January 2014}}</ref> She is  buried at St Mary the Virgin's Church, [[Twickenham]], London.<ref>{{cite book |last = Wilson |first = Scott | date = 2016 | title = Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons | edition = 3rd |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=7-DgDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA755 |location = Jefferson, North Carolina |publisher = McFarland & Company |page = 755 |isbn = 9780786479924}}</ref> Although Travers never fully accepted the way the Disney film version of ''Mary Poppins'' had portrayed her nanny figure, the film did make her rich.<ref>Valerie Lawson, ''Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P. L. Travers'', 2005, pp. 270–274.</ref> Her estate was valued for probate in September 1996 at £2,044,708.<ref>Valerie Lawson, ''Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P. L. Travers'', 2005, p. 360.</ref>