Pleased to meet you...at last

After a series of brilliant, but sombre reads - it was time for something a little lighter. I was sorry to hear earlier in the month of the death of the children's author, Michael Bond. I had never been a huge fan of Paddington, though I had enjoyed Olga da Polga - Bond's hedgehog creation. I knew though that scores of children (and adults) adored Paddington, the problem was me.

In fact it was quite a specific problem. I remembered being given a book of Paddington Bear stories (Paddington at large to be exact - the thought of the cover still makes me feel quite ill). I was a 5 year old child in hospital, when hospital was still a big scary place where parents were only allowed in during strictly maintained visiting hours. It was a horrid experience, and scarred Paddington for the rest of my life. In honour of Michael Bond, I felt I had to give the bear another chance; after all he was named after my favourite railway station - the entrance to the enchanted city of London for a little girl from South Wales. So I got a copy of the very first Paddington - A bear called Paddington, and was entranced.

Paddington arose out of two elements that became intertwined. A small cuddly bear that Bond had bought his wife as a Christmas present, and a memory of evacuee children queued up with luggage labels looking like unwanted suitcases on a London station. The result was the story of a refugee bear (from darkest Peru); homeless after his Aunt Lucy goes into a home for retired bears, Paddington stows away on a ship to Britain in search of a better life. Adopted by the Brown family, who take pity on him when they meet the polite bear at a London station, Paddington makes the most of his new life.

The Paddington Bear statue at Paddington Station

Bond is a very clever writer - Paddington has the naivete of a child, but being a bear he also has unexpected knowledge - not least from his background in Peru. He's very well meaning, and polite, and any scrapes that he does get into are purely because he was trying to do something good-intentioned at the time. What I hadn't appreciated was how funny the Paddington books are too. There are some wonderfully comical stories (my favourite involved a slightly tubby bear visiting the theatre for the first time), which had me grinning in delight.

Paddington lives with the sort of family that we would all like to have, with friends around him who are equally lovable. He is a feel-good bear, and makes everyone around him feel happier too. In a period when there are many refugees, economic migrants, and a huge amount of suspicion, you just wish the world could be a bit more like Paddington's - a more trusting, friendly world, that's ready to see the positive in everyone. I'm very pleased to have made his acquaintance at long last.