Grizabella like a crooked pin." The character of Grizabella featured in an unpublished poem that T. S. Eliot wrote for his godchildren, intending to include it in "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats". However, as his widow, Valerie Eliot pointed out, he thought it was too "sad for children" and so did not include it in the finished work. Valerie Eliot came to the 1980 Sydmonton Festival concert where Andrew Lloyd Webber premiered some of his settings of the Old Possum poems, and gave him the paper with the fragment of Grizabella written on it. From there Lloyd Webber and director
Possum Magic Books in Adelaide they asked Fox to reduce the four-and-a-half page book, then titled "Hush the Invisible Mouse", by two-thirds and to change the mice to Australian animals to place emphasis on her Australian theme. As of 2011, "Possum Magic" sold three million copies. In 2017, the Royal Australian Mint struck a series of $1 and $2 coins to commemorate the book. Possum Magic Possum Magic is a picture book by Australian author Mem Fox. The two main characters are Grandma Poss and Hush. Hush has been made invisible by Grandma to protect her from Australian bush dangers. The story