© 2024 Kansas City Public Radio
NPR in Kansas City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
KCUR is broadcasting from our auxiliary tower, limiting the reach of our broadcast signal. Streaming is still available online at KCUR.org and on smart devices.

Paddington Bear Creator Michael Bond Dies At 91

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The writer who created Paddington Bear has died. Michael Bond was behind the well-mannered-but-accident-prone bear.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

In 1958, readers first discovered the bear sitting on his suitcase at a London train station, having smuggled himself from, quote, "deepest, darkest Peru."

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Reading) I'm not really supposed to be here at all. I'm a stowaway. I came all the way in a lifeboat, and I ate marmalade. Bears like marmalade.

INSKEEP: Of course.

MARTIN: That's a reading from the first book in Michael Bond's series. Paddington and his adopted family later starred in a TV series and a movie.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "PADDINGTON")

HUGH BONNEVILLE: (As Henry Brown) You need a proper guardian.

BEN WHISHAW: (As Paddington) What's that?

SALLY HAWKINS: (As Mary Brown) It's a grown-up who takes you into their home, looks after you.

WHISHAW: (As Paddington) Like you?

HAWKINS: (As Mary Brown) Yes, well, I suppose so.

INSKEEP: Paddington's creator was a veteran of World War II. He was in Cairo when he wrote his first story in 1945. In later years, he was working as a BBC cameraman when he thought of Paddington.

MARTIN: He was inspired by a single stuffed bear for sale in a store. A few years before his death at 91, Bond said Paddington's story resonates in a time of refugee crises.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MICHAEL BOND: Paddington in a way is a refugee. And I think his label saying please look after this bear is a very important ingredient.

MARTIN: Author Michael Bond did look after that bear through 14 Paddington books.

(SOUNDBITE OF BOYFRIENDS' "SIZE TEN SHUFFLE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

KCUR serves the Kansas City region with breaking news and award-winning podcasts.
Your donation helps keep nonprofit journalism free and available for everyone.