Happy Birthday Paddington Bear!

Paddington is well known character from a series of books written by Michael Bond and is as popular today among children as it was fifty years ago.

Today is the 50^th birthday of Paddington Bear. It was on October 13th 1958 that 'A Bear Called Paddington' was published by Michael Bond. This has become a firm favourite with children all over the world during the last half century. There is now a whole collection of Paddington Books but this was the first in the series.

The only thing the Brown family knew about Paddington when he first went to live with them was that he came from 'darkest Peru'. Everyone knows (well, almost everyone knows) that Paddington is a superior kind of bear who wears a blue duffle coat, a red floppy hat and sometimes even yellow Wellington boots. They soon discovered that he had a very good sense of smell and a passion for marmalade sandwiches.

A recent advertisement on television features Paddington adding Marmite to sandwiches at various menus but I don't think his sense of taste extended that far.

Paddington first came to England when dear old Aunt Lucy went to stay at the retirement home for old bears in Lima, Peru. She decided that he should go and live in England and set about preparing him for his voyage. She taught him to speak English and take care of himself and then then arranged for him to stow away in a lifeboat on a very large ship.

It was when he first arrived at Paddington Station, London, that the Brown family first met him. He was sitting all alone in a corner of the station wearing a tag which read 'Please look after this bear.' He was named after the station and it was just as well that it was Paddington station that he arrived at because Euston would not have been a very good name for a bear from Peru.

That's exactly what they did, they took Paddington home to live with them.

There is a bronze statue of Paddington Bear sitting on his suitcase at Paddington station to commemorate this momentous occasion.

Paddington remains a popular character with children and adults alike and the books are funny and exciting for younger children to read. There is a humour in some on the situations Paddington finds himself in that amuses adults too.

Happy Birthday Paddington!