Michael Bond

The Browns first met Paddington on a railway station - Paddington station, in fact. He had travelled all the way from Darkest Peru with only a jar of marmalade, a suitcase and his hat.

The Browns soon find that Paddington is a very unusual bear. Ordinary things - like having a bath, travelling underground or going to the seaside become quite extraordinary, if a bear called Paddington is involved.

Thursday the Mouse fell from a balloon having just escaped from the Home for Waif-Mice and Stray-Mice. The Pecks adopt him into their family of church mice and they name him Thursday because the day he arrived was a Thursday to remember.

Pamplemousse is asked to advise on gastronomic treats to be offered to VIP’s flying on a dirigible from France to England. The entente cordiale is at stake but strange events lead Pamplemousse to suspect that all will not go according to plan..

Monsieur Pamplemousse attends the filming of Claude Chavignol's culinary TV show. The audience's enjoyment stops abruptly when Claude starts choking - he has been poisoned and dies on live TV.

The Brown Family first met Paddington on a railway station – Paddington station, in fact – and now he is just another member of their family, if a slightly unusual one.

As he says himself, “Things happen to me – I’m that sort of bear.” With his attempts at home decorating, detective work and photography, the Brown family soon find that Paddington causes his own particular brand of chaos.

The circus has come to town, and Paddington and the Browns have front row seats! But Paddington becomes anxious when he looks up and sees a man dangling from a rope by his ankles. Always ready to lend a paw, he rushes off to save the trapeze artist and as a result the circus is turned upside down! Paddington, however, comes out on top as the star of the show.

Since the Browns found Paddington on a railway platform and took him home to live with them, there has never been a dull moment at number 32 Windsor Gardens. But as he explained to them at the start, "Things happen to me: I'm that sort of a bear."

There's the day his basket on wheels mysteriously disappears when he's out shopping in the market. And the time he locks the Browns' grouchy old neighbor, Mr. Curry, out of his house on Halloween night.

However, everyone in the family, including Paddington, agrees that a surprise visit from a long-lost relative is the start of his most exciting adventure ever.

Paddington read on the glossy leaflet showing a large, sleek, silver-grey car. It took him a long time to eat fifteen packets of currants in order to enter the competition. And the Rolls-Royce he’d expected to win turned out to be one of ten thousand consolation prizes – a bookmark!

Then Paddington finds himself taking a driving test and, much to his amazement, is presented with a license allowing him to drive a rather unusual vehicle.

Thursday and his friends set off on a fabulous river trip.

Thursday the mouse and Harris build a car, and the Peck family are delighted to accept their offer of a trip to the coast. How were they to know that they would end up in France with no obvious way of getting home?