With a major new film chronicling the adventures of Paddington Bear coming at the end of the month, Amanda Hodges talks to author Michael Bond about the inspiration for his famous bear
Michael Bond Paddington
Sometimes a fleeting impression can prove profoundly influential. This was certainly the case for Michael Bond, whose enchanting and enduring creation Paddington Bear is, at least in part, a product of the author’s own experience.
“I remember at the start of the war trains from London arriving with lots of evacuees,” says Michael, vividly recalling his childhood in Reading. “They were all wearing a label around their neck with their name on, each carrying a little suitcase with all their prized possessions. It stuck in my mind, so I gave Paddington a label: ‘Please look after this bear. Thank you.’ It just felt right.”
Born in 1926 in the Berkshire town of Newbury, the gracious, quietly affable 88-year-old Bond embodies many of the qualities one associates with his distinguished bear.
And it’s a big year for Paddington, with a new book and a feature film tabled for autumn and winter release. Produced by David Heyman – the man behind the Harry Potter franchise – it will no doubt become a family classic.
Although the wonderful 1970s TV series was a great success, Michael felt slightly apprehensive about seeing Paddington on the big screen.
“I was prepared not to like it,” he admits. “But it's so real! I've only seen 30 seconds of Paddington walking along a street but he looked very dignified.”
Now based in North London, Michael moved to Reading as an infant when his father, a post office clerk, was transferred from Newbury. Life moved at a gentle pace, as Michael recalls in his engaging autobiography, Bears & Forebears:
“Everything was delivered to the house by horse-drawn vehicles, freshly baked bread, vegetables on an open cart.
“Milk was delivered in churns on a hand cart and it was a high spot of the day to be allowed to take a jug into the street so that a pint could be poured from a measure.”
Today his recollections remain idyllic.
“I had a very happy childhood with a nice mother and father,” he says. “I think the most precious thing you can give a child is your time, and my father always did that. He used to come home tired out after working at the post office and I wanted to play cricket in Prospect Park. He never complained about it.”
Michael's father also provided a model for many of Paddington's appealing qualities, including his politeness and penchant for wearing a hat.
“We used to go down to the Isle of Wight for holidays and I never saw my father in a bathing costume,” Michael explains. “He used to roll his trousers up and wear his hat in the sea in case he met anyone he knew. He was a terribly nice man and a typical civil servant to his fingertips.”
Memories are pulled from Michael’s hat like so many marmalade sandwiches.
“I left school at 14 because the war was on,” he continues. “I'd gone to a Catholic school, Presentation College in Bath Road – not because I was Catholic but because my mother liked the colour of the school blazer. It was purple, which was beautiful when it was new, but in the hot sun it turned a nasty shade of pink.”
After a stint in a local lawyer's office, teenage Michael's next job came about in a fashion that rings with the quaintness familiar from his fiction. ‘Wanted: someone interested in radio’ ran an unlikely local ad, acceptance of which launched Michael on his foray into local radio as a BBC trainee engineer in Reading, before he entered the forces in 1943.
When he returned home he was transferred to the BBC's Monitoring Services in Caversham, now a Reading suburb, where he met a diverse group of colleagues.
“They were an interesting lot,” he chuckles wryly. “One was Russian who had escaped from Russia in a grand piano. Another was a Polish man who had fled his homeland with a horse. He used to ride it into work and tie it up at the cycle rack!”
Some of this experience may have made its way into the stories of Paddington, himself an immigrant and a close friend of a fellow refugee, Hungarian Mr Gruber, with whom cosy elevenses are shared.
Michael later became a cameraman at the BBC, initially commuting from Reading and later from Notting Hill, where the concept for the first Paddington book – A Bear Called Paddington – was hatched over a matter of days in 1958.
Who would have thought a simple romantic gesture one Christmas would inspire one of history’s most beloved children’s characters?
Bond with his daughter Karen at Buckingham Palace where he was awarded a CBE for Services to Children’s Literature by the Duke of Cambridge
“It sounds like a sob story,” says Michael bashfully, “but one Christmas Eve I was in Oxford Street and it started to snow. I went into Selfridges to find shelter and found myself in the toy department, and there was this one very small bear left on the shelf. I wanted a stocking-filler for my wife, so I bought the bear.”
Working a four-day week gave Michael the flexibility to focus on writing – something he'd begun during his army days, publishing his first short story in London in the late 1940s. One evening he found himself casting around for inspiration.
“I had no ideas as such, but looking around my very small flat I saw this bear sitting on the mantelpiece. And I thought: ‘I wonder what would happen if…’”
The rest, as they say, is history, with a slew of books, a much-loved animated series, collectable merchandise and a faithful fan base to show for Michael’s moment of inspiration.
“I called him Paddington because it used to be my commuting station and I liked the name. It's got a solid West Country sound,” he adds.
Not having read AA Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh at the time, but aware of the character's fondness for honey, Michael decided to give his own bear a predilection for marmalade. He also lent him the iconic duffle coat that he himself was wearing at the time. Paddington's credibility as a talking bear is tacitly accepted, enhanced no doubt by Peggy Fortnum's evocative original illustrations.
Over 50 years later Paddington's enduring appeal bemuses his benign creator, who is pleasantly surprised by his famous bear’s phenomenal longevity.
“I didn't have any age group in mind when I wrote the book and I get as much mail from adults as I do from children,” he says warmly. “People used to send me jars of marmalade. Unfortunately they were often not very well wrapped, so the parcels would be somewhat sticky!”
Paddington Bear with a royal guest at the premier of the film in China
Part of Paddington's attraction lies in the civilised quality of his existence at 32 Windsor Gardens with the kindly Brown family.
“I think people are slightly envious of his lifestyle because the speed of life has increased all the time. Everybody feels that,” opines Michael. “Whereas Paddington lives life at his own pace.”
And for all those who love the iconic bear, it's surely his combination of decency, innocence and total confidence that proves so irresistible.
Moreover it’s an appeal that is truly universal, as illustrated by an unusual yet touching occasion during a book signing in Harrods.
“There was a young guy there who had a pile of all the hardcover Paddington editions,” recalls Michael. “He asked if I'd mind signing them all for Lucy. I asked: ‘Is Lucy a daughter of yours?’ And he went pink and said: ‘No, actually she's my fiancée. We're getting married at the weekend and she's never read a Paddington book. So I'm giving her a complete set for our honeymoon!’”
More recently, when invited behind the scenes to sit in on filming for the new Paddington adventure, Michael received further proof of Paddington's cross-generational appeal.
“When it was first starting, I went to visit Elstree Studios,” he explains. “They were shooting the Browns' house. I sat watching the shoot for over two and a half hours and they still hadn't done the scene properly, but they wouldn't let me leave because they wanted me to meet the cast!
“The nice thing about the film is that all the people in it love Paddington and are doing it because they were brought up on the stories. It makes for a very warm atmosphere.”
Hopefully the well-mannered bear from Darkest Peru would be modestly gratified by all the affectionate attention.
He might even produce a marmalade sandwich in honour of the very special occasion.
- The second Paddington Bear film is in production and scheduled for release in November 2017. For more details visit paddington.com
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