Paddington Bear

I recently went to see an exhibition on Paddington bear, which is on at the Museum of London to coincide with the release of the new Paddington movie.

On Christmas eve in 1956, a BBC cameraman Michael Bond went into a department store and bought the last toy bear as a gift for his wife. Over the holiday he began to imagine the adventures that the bear could have in and around London and eventually began to write them down. The first book was published in October 1958.

The stories are of Paddington, a bear from Peru, who has come to London and was found at Paddington Station by the Brown family with whom he goes to live. There have been 70 books written which have been translated into 30 languages and sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. There have been 2 TV series based on the stories, one in the 1970s and the other in the 1980s.

There has also been a Paddington bear trail around London created and a statue at Paddington station commemorating his arrival

The Paddington statue at Paddington station.
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