BBC cameraman Michael Bond felt a pang of sympathy for the teddy bear he spied sitting alone and unloved on a shop shelf on Christmas Eve in 1956. So he bought the bear and gave it to his wife, Brenda, as a present. Ten days later, Bond had written the first of many books inspired by the stuffed toy – A Bear Called Paddington, published on 13 October 1958. It chronicles the discovery of the Peruvian bear sitting on his suitcase at Paddington railway station, with a label around his neck that read: “Please look after this bear”.
The hungry little “stowaway” tells the Brown family, who happen upon him, how he had travelled from “darkest Peru” to Britain, hiding in a lifeboat, after his aunt Lucy went to live in a “home for retired bears”. All he had to go on during his long journey was a jar of marmalade. The Brown family take pity on him and offer him a home, despite the initial misgivings of Mr Brown, who works as a stuffy risk analyst in the City. Named Paddington, after the railway station by the Browns, the hapless bear goes off to live with his adoptive family for many an amusing misadventure.
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Paddington and the theme of migration
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