New book and film are just the bear necessities

It's 50 years since Paddington Bear arrived from Darkest Peru at the eponymous London station, wearing a bush hat with a label around his neck saying, "Please look after this bear. Thank you". To celebrate the anniversary, his creator Michael Bond has now penned a new book, Paddington Here And Now , the first in 30 years, which brings Paddington into the modern world. Now he faces issues like car clamping, anti-burglar paint and surveys involving people with clip-boards. Despite the passing years, Paddington has retained his wonderfully human traits, remaining well-mannered, easily confused and often outraged at injustice. But always dignified. Bond, 82, a similarly noble gentleman, refused to take an advance from the publishers just in case he couldn't deliver the goods. He needn't have worried. Paddington reappeared in his mind and once he did, it took Bond just three months to finish the book. Indeed, the bear who loves marmalade sandwiches has a reality about him not seen in other children's characters. Fans send Bond pictures of themselves with Paddington from all over the world, as if he's part of their family. "I picture him as being a real character and if I met him going along the street I wouldn't be surprised," says Bond. "Nobody in the book ever says, 'Oh gosh! A talking bear!' because that would prick the balloon. When they meet him they treat him as a slightly strange adult from a foreign land, but they never query his existence." It's not only Bond, his characters and his young readers also humanise the fictional bear. British Conservative leader David Cameron, he reveals, was out for dinner with friends when they realised there were 13 in the party. Several guests were superstitious, so the restaurant owner nipped upstairs and emerged with Paddington Bear, sitting him on another chair with them. Bond adds: "Years ago I was at a signing in Australia and I was always being asked on to the flight deck because the crew wanted to see Paddington. On one occasion I had taken my seat when they sent me a message asking if Paddington could stay up on the flight deck because he wanted to try landing the plane!" The anniversary celebrations continue with the publication of a variety of Paddington re-issues and new formats to mark this 50th year, but Bond is also excited about a forthcoming movie involving Harry Potter producer David Heyman, which will combine live action and computer-generated imagery. Bond, who won't be writing the screenplay but will have script approval, hopes Warner Bros will take on Stephen Fry as the voice of the famous bear. "He's done a recording of the new book and made a super job of it. He's a slightly bear-like character himself. "He went to Peru to make a film for the BBC two or three years ago, showing where Paddington lived and so on and really enters into the spirit of Paddington." Originally from Newbury, Berkshire in the United Kingdom, Bond was brought up in a place where books were part of the furniture. "It was as natural to read a book as it was to have breakfast. My mother used to go to the library every Friday and come back with an armful of books." Many of Paddington's personality traits are taken from Bond's father, a civil servant. "My father was totally impractical. He was a very polite man. He was never without his hat. I have pictures of him going bathing on the Isle of Wight with his hat still on, in case he met somebody else bathing and had nothing to raise," he says. "But he wasn't afraid of authority. If he thought something was wrong he would certainly stand his ground." Bond lived in the English town of Reading during the war (Paddington was the London commuter station from there) and remembers seeing many refugees with luggage labels round their necks with their names and addresses on them, which provided the inspiration for Paddington's label. He became a BBC cameraman and, after producing some short stories and radio plays, his agent suggested he adapt a TV play for children. His first book, A Bear Called Paddington , was published in 1958 and he went on to write a series. By 1967 his books were so successful that he gave up his job at the BBC to write full-time. To date, the Paddington Bear books have sold more than 35 million copies worldwide and are available in more than 40 languages. When the series spawned a TV spin-off, which at its peak attracted seven million viewers and a flurry of licensing requests, Bond's world went into merchandising madness. "It was a very stressful time," says Bond. "And it didn't do my first marriage any good. "People used to come to me with merchandise and I used to think, 'What would Paddington think about it?' If I felt he wouldn't like it I used to say no. Somebody came to me one day with toilet rolls and he wanted to put a picture of Paddington on the rolls. That was an easy decision. Somebody else arrived with a waste paper bucket with a detachable Paddington head on it. That was also easy to say no to." He