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 Browns are going abroad, and Paddington considers a holiday in France is not to be taken lightly. So he packs a disguise outfit, his magic set and a map of France printed on a tea towel.

Paddington is in charge of the ‘EYETINNERY’ and, as Mrs Bird mutters darkly, ‘There’s no knowing where we might end up.’ But he’s planning some very good holiday ‘doings’ indeed for the Browns. And Paddington himself becomes the only bear ever to ride in the famous Tour de France bicycle race – and win a prize!

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.

Paddington doesn’t intentionally turn his friend’s wedding into an uproar by getting the wedding ring stuck on his paw. Nor does he mean Mr Curry to slip on his marmalade sandwich in the middle of an important gold shot. But these sort of things just happen to a bear like Paddington!

What other bear could upset the whole cinema by standing on his seat to boo the ‘bad guy’ in the cowboy film? Or drip ice-cream on the people down below? Or flood the launderette and saw Mr Curry’s kitchen into little pieces? Only Paddington! But when Paddington’s head is so full of ideas, some things are bound to go wrong!

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’s sharp nose and his talent for getting into difficulties lead him to an orange marmalade tasting party. His enthusiasm lands him in a barrel of marmalade, causing an avalanche in the warehouse. And, one morning, he sniffs out a surprise for himself and discovers that he is about to embark on the greatest adventure of his life.

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.

“Even Paddington can’t come to much harm in half an hour,” said Mrs Brown optimistically. But he can manage a lot of other things in even less time – like hanging Mr Curry’s lawnmower from a tree-top, or coming up through the bandstand floor during the ‘Surprise Symphony’.

Then Paddington has a sticky time of it making toffee in Mrs Bird’s kitchen, and an even stickier time explaining what went wrong.

And who else but Paddington could set Father Christmas’s beard on fire?

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?