R.W. Alley

“Mr. and Mrs. Brown first met Paddington on a railway platform.” And so begins the now classic first adventure of Paddington Bear.


The original Paddington books were chapter books. The first debuted to happy acclaim over forty years ago. Since then Paddington’s adventures have been told in board books and picture books and pop-up books and fold-out books and just about any other way you can imagine. Every book has been written by Michael Bond. He seems to have a certain affinity for the bear. And, it must be said, the bear for him.

In 1997 I was asked to see if I could draw Paddington for a new line of picture books. What a wonderful chance! I got right to work.

Many other artists have drawn, and I knew would draw, Paddington and it was not an easy thing to figure out how to make my interpretation have a life of its own. AND, I had to audition my drawings for Mr. Bond, himself. Luckily, not unlike the Londoners Paddington meets, especially those along Portobello Road, Michael Bond is an extremely pleasant gentleman. He asked me to reconsider only several of my drawings. Since I had brought my paper and paints with me to London, this was not too difficult. In the end, Michael approved letting me try to picture Paddington.

So far, so good. To date I have illustrated almost twenty of Mr. Bond’s books about Paddington. The newest, PADDINGTON AND THE GRAND TOUR has just been published in England and Europe (2003).

And, as an aside, might I suggest to foreign language teachers in the US that it would not be an unwise thing to consider a clutch of Paddington picture books for your programs. You would be amazed at the number of languages that Paddington has been translated into.