Paddington Bear, like our late Queen, is such a beloved character, who has become an important part of our history having been around for more than 6 decades, and we have taken him into our hearts. Fortunately for Paddington, whatever scrapes he gets into, things always turn out alright for him in the end. As Bond commented: "He’s never put down or deflated. He has the naivety of a child and the sophistication of an adult." In 1997 Michael Bond was awarded an OBE for services to children’s literature and this was followed by a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2015.

Paddington is adorable. A very polite bear, very well-meaning and full of good intentions but his trusting nature can often get him into trouble. Michael Bond 13 Jan 1926 - 28 June 2017. Born in Newbury, Berkshire, England he was educated at Presentation College, Reading. During World War II Michael Bond served in both the Royal Air Force and the Middlesex Regiment of the British Army. He began writing in 1945 and sold his first short story to a magazine called London Opinion. This experience helped him decide that he wanted to be a writer. Paddington was born in 1958 by the pen of Michael Bond. Bond worked for the BBC as a cameraman but he loved to write. Coming home from work late one Christmas Eve, in Selfridges London he found a solitary bear left on a shelf, felt sorry for it, and brought it home for his wife. They called it Paddinton as they lived near to the station and that little bear inspired him to start writing. Just a week later, he had tons of content, sent the book to his agent who liked i and it was accepted by William Collins & Sons (now Harper Collins). Paddington is one of those characters that has stood the test of time. Quite often they are characters from picture books because they connect us all. There is no barrier to entry and in spite of language, reading capability, and any other divides, we can all enjoy them. And of course, picture books are the first books we encounter and fall in love with when we’re young. Paddington was definitely one of the characters that made me fall in love with books. For the last 37 years of his life Michael Bond lived in London, not far from Paddington Station where it all began. He continued to write until shortly before he died on 27th June 2017, aged 91.In 2015, Michael was awarded a CBE for his services to children’s literature, to add to the OBE he received in 1997. Michael Bond never thought of writing for children but, after producing a number of short stories and radio plays, his agent suggested that he adapt a television play for children. His first book, A Bear Called Paddington, was published in 1958 by William Collins & Sons (now HarperCollins Publishers). At the time, Michael Bond was working as a television cameraman for the BBC.