Michael Bond(1926-2017)

He wrote his first Paddington Bear book in 1958 while working as a BBC cameraman on programmes such as the children's magazine programme Blue Peter (1958), until the popularity of his Paddington books allowed him to give up this job and devote himself full-time to writing.

The great advantage of having a bear as a central character is that he can combine the innocence of a child with the sophistication of an adult. Paddington is not the sort of bear who would ever go to the moon--he has his paws too firmly on the ground for that. He gets involved in everyday situations. He has a strong sense of right and wrong and doesn't take too kindly to the red-tape bureaucracy of the sillier rules and regulations with which we humans surround ourselves. As a bear, he gets away with things. Paddington is humanized, but he couldn't possibly be a human--it just wouldn't work.