Practically Perfect

Mary Poppins is arguably one of the most famous and well-loved films in the world, but how many of us are aware of the extent of the life lessons that it opens up to us?

Yes, Mary Poppins has a great deal to say, and not just about talking umbrellas and bottomless bags (though both would come in handy…). Messages are hidden within that can influence how we live, how we view our own choices and mental health, the relationship with our parents, and even explain how to navigate the crazy adult world that we have grown to live in.

In Practically Perfect: Life Lessons from Mary Poppins, award-winning writer and comedian Katy Brand explores how we can apply the messages from Mary Poppins to our everyday lives, covering themes as broad as the importance to mental health of keeping your bedroom tidy, our need for fantasy, the suffragettes, and the pressure on men having to fulfil an out-of-date ideal, when they just want to see their children and go fly a kite.

This life advice is interwoven with a satisfying amount of geekery in the form of film analysis, interviews, and insider knowledge, allowing us to learn more about this remarkable character, and film, along the way.

Practically Perfect is the common-sense manual for life that you never knew you needed.

About the Author

Katy Brand is an award-winning writer, comedian and actor. After starting to write and perform comedy as a student at Oxford University, she became a regular on the UK live sketch comedy scene. In 2005 she took her debut Edinburgh show Celebrities are Gods to the Fringe which was immediately picked up for Channel 4 (Slap). This later became her award-winning ITV sketch show, Katy Brand's Big Ass Show, which she devised, wrote and starred in. It ran for three series and later became a nationwide live tour.