A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond

When I was 8 years old I went to stay with my grandparents in a village called Felsted in Essex. There was a marvellous little bookshop that I spent ages in during my stay with them. I bought three books I remember very clearly,  Dr Who and the Daleks, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and A Bear Called Paddington. I still have copies of the last two although I regretfully got rid of all my Target Books and they are now expensive to buy on ebay! Oh well!

A Bear Called Paddington is the first book in the series and forms the basis of the first film that had such success. It is the story of the bear of the title and his attempts to fit in with the human world under the guidance of his adoptive family The Brown’s. As a young child who also had problems fitting in with the rest of the human world I related to Paddington so much both then and now. It’s got hilarious set pieces, life lessons and characters that became as important to me as anyone in the real world. There was a real safety to these books which meant that years after I first read it I still returned to it as I dealt with a world that was even more unfriendly at 18 than it was at 8. I really must read it again, specifically the same copy and one that was signed by Michael Bond himself.