Michael Bond Biography

Michael Bond – British Author 1926-2017

It is almost impossi­ble to think of Michael Bond without also thinking of his most famous character, Padding­ton Bear, so inescapably linked are the two. Michael Bond’s first published writing, however, was not for children.

Born and raised in Berkshire, England, Michael Bond began writing while serving with the British army in the Middle East. His first short story published, Bond decided to become a writer. As he has said, “I amassed a vast quantity of rejec­tion slips but also had articles published. I turned to writing radio plays, then television. At my agent’s suggestion, I began to write things for children.” Such “things” turned into a collec­tion of short stories about a small bear named Paddington, published in 1958 in England as a book, A Bear Called Paddington, which chroni­cles the discovery by the Brown family of an English-speaking bear from Darkest Peru at the Paddington train station and Paddington’s gradual assimilation into the Browns’ London household.

Paddington’s appeal came not only from the hilarious situations and mishaps in which he found himself — from being buried under gro­ceries on his first supermarket trip to discover­ing cheese souffles and pickled onions at a fancy restaurant — but also from Peggy Fortnum’s pen and ink sketches, which capture Paddington’s bewitching charm and combination “little boy/small bear” character.

Paddington’s adventures continued with the publication of More About Paddington (1961), Paddington Helps Out (1961), Paddington at Large (1963), Paddington at Work (1967), Pad­dington Goes to Town (1968), Paddington Takes the Air (1971), Paddington Abroad (1972) and Paddington on Top (1975). In each book —ac­tually a compilation of seven distinct stories joined by a general theme — Paddington Bear bumbles delightfully from one absurd escapade to the next. While Bond believes his bear to be a typical English character — as English as Mary Poppins and Peter Pan — the books have been translated into more than ten languages. “Obvi­ously,” Bond has said, “Paddington-type situa­tions happen to people all over”

In 1967 Michael Bond introduced a Hew series and a new character in Here Comes Thursday. Thurs­day, an orphaned mouse, enters the lives of the Cupboardosities, a family of mice who live in the church organ loft and run the cheese store: His adventures continue in Thursday Rides Again (1969) and Thursday in Paris (1971). The Thursday series—noted for its fluent style and light humor — lacks the contrast between en­gaging animal behavior and realistic human be­havior that adds a nonsensical note to the Pad­dington Bear stories.

Continuing with his tradition of orphaned animals and adoptive families, Bond introduced the guinea pig Olga da Polga in The Tales of Olga da Polga (1972) and continued her story in Olga Meets Her Match (1975), Olga Carries On (1977), and Olga Takes Charge (1983). Olga was, in fact, a real member of Michael Bond’s family — she arrived as a birthday present for Bond’s daughter — and he has claimed that while some of Olga’s tales are partly based on actual events, “others are fig­ments of Olga’s imagination.” Olga’s appeal lies in her exuberant zest for life, her penchant for inventing stories, and her complacent con­fidence in her own charms.

The enduring popularity of Bond’s charac­ters may be due to his philosophy about writing children’s books: if you plan to write for chil­dren, “you run the risk of writing down.” Rather than condescendingly treating his readers to quaint animal stories, Bond’s books, specifically the Paddington Bear series, recognize the every­day worries of small, accident-prone children and treat their fears with compassion, wit, and laughter.

Source: Children’s Books and their Creators, Anita Silvey.

Michael Bond Bibliography