Paddington Bear Turns 50

Paddington Bear is now 50 years old and is being celebrated on the home page of Google with a custom logo. Paddington Bear first emerged on the scene on October 13th 1958.



Paddington Bear is well known for his impeccable manners. He always refers to people he just meets as "Mr" or "Mrs".

Paddington Bear has been the subject of books, and even a series of toys that bear his image.

Finally, a new Paddington Bear movie is in the works.

The author of Paddington Bear was Michael Bond, who says his inspiration was quite simple. He saw a bear at a toy store, and it gave him the idea for a story.

"I bought a small toy bear on Christmas Eve 1956," he said. "I saw it left on a shelf in a London store and felt sorry for it. I took it home as a present for my wife Brenda and named it Paddington as we were living near Paddington Station at the time. I wrote some stories about the bear, more for fun than with the idea of having them published. After ten days I found that I had a book on my hands. It wasn't written specifically for children, but I think I put into it the kind things I liked reading about when I was young."