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Michael Bond

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Template:Short description {{#invoke:Other people|otherPeople}} Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person Thomas Michael Bond Template:Post-nominals (13 January 1926 – 27 June 2017) was an English author. He is best known for a series of children's books featuring the character of Paddington Bear. More than 35 million books in the series have been sold worldwide, and the characters have also appeared in several animated television series, a film series, and a stage musical.

Early lifeEdit

Thomas Michael Bond was born on 13 January 1926 in Newbury, Berkshire.<ref name="NYT" /> He grew up in Reading, where his visits to Reading railway station to watch the Cornish Riviera Express pass through started a love of trains. His father was a manager for the post office.<ref name="The Guardian 28 November 2014" /> He was educated at Presentation College in Reading. His time there was unhappy. He told The Guardian in November 2014 that his parents had chosen the school "for the simple reason [that his] mother liked the colour of the blazers ... she didn't make many mistakes in life, but that was one of them". He left education aged 14, despite his parents' wishes for him to go to university.<ref name="The Guardian 28 November 2014">Template:Cite news</ref> The Second World War was under way and he went to work in a solicitor's office for a year, and then as an engineer's assistant for the BBC.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref>

On 10 February 1943<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Bond survived an air raid in Reading. The building in which he was working collapsed under him, killing 41 people and injuring many more.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Shortly afterwards he volunteered for aircrew service in the Royal Air Force as a 17-year-old, but he was discharged after being found to suffer from acute air sickness.Template:Cn He then served in the Middlesex Regiment of the British Army until 1947.<ref name=bbc2014>Template:Cite news</ref>

AuthorEdit

File:Michael Bond, Saint Mary's Square, Paddington.jpg
Art installation depicting Bond in Saint Mary's Square, Paddington, with Paddington Bear

Bond began writing in 1945, when he was stationed with the Army in Cairo, and sold his first short story to the magazine London Opinion. He was paid seven guineas and thought that he "wouldn't mind being a writer".<ref name="The Guardian 28 November 2014" /> After he'd produced several plays and short stories, and had become a BBC television cameraman (he worked on Blue Peter for a time), his first book, A Bear Called Paddington, was published by Collins in 1958. Barbara Ker Wilson had read his draft at one sitting and she then phoned Bond at the number given. She was put through to Lime Grove Studios. Bond had to tell her that he wasn't supposed to take calls at work.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

This was the start of Bond's series of books recounting the tales of Paddington Bear, a bear from "darkest Peru", whose Aunt Lucy sends him to the United Kingdom, carrying a jar of marmalade. In the first book the Brown family find the bear at Paddington Station, and adopt him, naming the bear after the station.<ref name=bbc2014 /> By 1965 Bond was able to give up his BBC job to work full time as a writer.<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Paddington's adventures have sold over 35 million books, have been published in nearly 20 countries, in over 40 languages, and have inspired pop bands, race horses, plays, hot air balloons, movies and adaptations for television.<ref name=bbc2014 /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Bond stated in December 2007 that he did not plan to continue the adventures of Paddington Bear in further volumes,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> but in April 2014 it was reported that a new book, entitled Love From Paddington, would be published that autumn. In Paddington, a 2014 film based on the books, Bond had a credited cameo as the Kindly Gentleman.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Bond also wrote another series of children's books, telling of the adventures of a guinea pig named Olga da Polga, who was named after the Bond family's pet,<ref name="The Guardian 28 November 2014" /> as well as the animated BBC television series The Herbs (1968).<ref name="Herbs"/> Bond also wrote culinary mystery stories for adults, featuring Monsieur Pamplemousse and his faithful bloodhound Pommes Frites.<ref name=":0" />

Bond wrote Reflection on the Passing of the Years shortly after his 90th birthday. The piece was read by Sir David Attenborough, who also turned 90 in 2016, at the national service of thanksgiving to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday at St Paul's Cathedral in June 2016.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

On 20 June 2016 StudioCanal acquired the Paddington franchise outright. Bond was allowed to keep the publishing rights to his series,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> which he licensed in April 2017 to HarperCollins for the next six years.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Television writingEdit

Bond wrote two short films for the BBC: Simon's Good Deed, which was shown on 11 October 1955,<ref name="Simon">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Napoleon's Day Out, shown on 9 April 1957.<ref name="Napoleon">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He also wrote one episode of the series The World Our Stage, an adaptation of the short story "The Decoration" by Guy de Maupassant, which aired on 4 January 1958.<ref name="Decoration">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

His best known television work is as the creator and writer of the children's television series The Herbs and The Adventures of Parsley, again for the BBC.<ref name="Herbs">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Parsley">Template:Cite book</ref>

HonoursEdit

Bond was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), for services to children's literature, in the 1997 Birthday Honours<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2015 Birthday Honours.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On 6 July 2007 the University of Reading awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Letters.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

On 10 January 2018 GWR named one of their Class 800 trains "Michael Bond / Paddington Bear".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Personal life and deathEdit

File:Michael Bond Passed Away Paddington Bear Statue.jpg
Statue of Paddington Bear in Paddington Station following Michael Bond's death.

Bond was married twice: to Brenda Mary Johnson in 1950, from whom he separated in the 1970s before divorcing in 1981; and to Susan Marfrey Rogers in 1981.<ref name = ODNB>Template:Cite ODNB</ref> He had two children.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref> He lived in Little Venice, London, not far from Paddington Station, the place that inspired many of his books.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name = ODNB/>

Bond died at home on 27 June 2017, at the age of 91, following a brief, undisclosed illness.<ref name = ODNB/> The film Paddington 2 (2017) was dedicated to his memory.<ref name="NYT">Template:Cite news</ref> In accordance with his wishes, he is buried in Paddington Old Cemetery.<ref name = ODNB/> The epitaph on his gravestone reads "Please look after this bear. Thank you."

In 2022, on the ITV programme DNA Journeys, it was discovered that Bond is a relative of the television presenter Kate Garraway.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

BibliographyEdit

Paddington Bear seriesEdit

  • 1958 A Bear Called Paddington. London: Collins.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1959 More About Paddington. London: Collins.
  • 1960 Paddington Helps Out. London: Collins.
  • 1961 Paddington Abroad. London: Collins.
  • 1962 Paddington at Large. London: Collins.
  • 1964 Paddington Marches On. London: Collins.
  • 1966 Paddington at Work. London: Collins.
  • 1968 Paddington Goes to Town. London: Collins.
  • 1970 Paddington Takes the Air. London: Collins. Template:ISBN
  • 1972 Paddington's Garden. London: Collins. Template:ISBN
  • 1973 Paddington's Blue Peter Story Book (sometimes titled as Paddington Takes to TV). London: Collins. Template:ISBN
  • 1974 Paddington on Top. London: Collins. Template:ISBN
  • 1975 Paddington at the Tower. London: Collins. Template:ISBN
  • 1979 Paddington Takes the Test. London: Collins. Template:ISBN
  • 1980 Paddington on Screen. London: Collins. Template:ISBN
  • 1984 Paddington at the Zoo. London: Collins. Template:ISBN
  • 1986 Paddington at the Palace. New York: Putnam. Template:ISBN
  • 1987 Paddington's Busy Day. London: Collins. Template:ISBN
  • 1992 A Day by the Sea Template:ISBN
  • 2001 Paddington in the Garden. London: Collins. Template:ISBN
  • 2003 Paddington and the Grand Tour. London: Collins. Template:ISBN
  • 2008 Paddington Rules the Waves. New York: HarperCollins. Template:ISBN
  • 2008 Paddington Here and Now. New York: HarperCollins. Template:ISBN<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 2012 Paddington Races Ahead. New York: HarperCollins. Template:ISBN
  • 2012 Paddington Goes for Gold. New York: HarperCollins. Template:ISBN
  • 2014 Love From Paddington. New York: HarperCollins. Template:ISBN<ref name=bbc2014 />
  • 2017 Paddington's Finest Hour. New York: HarperCollins. Template:ISBN<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Olga da Polga seriesEdit

Chapter booksEdit

Picture booksEdit

Monsieur Pamplemousse seriesEdit

Other booksEdit

TelevisionEdit

  • 1955 Simon's Good Deed (short film)<ref name="Simon"/>
  • 1957 Napoleon's Day Out (short film)<ref name="Napoleon"/>
  • 1958 The World Our Stage (one episode, "The Decoration")<ref name="Decoration"/>
  • 1968 The Herbs (13 episodes)<ref name="Herbs"/><ref name="Parsley"/>
  • 1970–71 The Adventures of Parsley (32 episodes)<ref name="Parsley"/>

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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Template:Paddington Bear Template:Authority control

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