Michael Bond, Paddington Bear Creator, Is Dead at 9. Certainly the character participated in some typical British activities in his books.

They included London theater, a cricket match, a visit to a waxworks museum, a riding competition and antiques shopping on Portobello Road. Paddington also had a known predilection for marmalade sandwiches. But most important, he is unfailingly polite with a strong sense of morality, and he always tries to do the right thing.

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For Mr. Bond, the story began on Christmas Eve 1. BBC TV camera operator. On his way home, he stopped by Selfridges department store and spotted a toy bear alone on a shelf. It looked rather forlorn,” he told the London newspaper The Sunday Telegraph in 2.

He took the bear home as a stocking stuffer for his wife and soon began writing a story about it. After 1. 0 days he had a completed novel, which William Collins & Sons bought for £7.

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Thomas Michael Bond was born in Newbury, Berkshire, England, on Jan. Norman Robert and Mary Frances Bond. Six weeks later, the family moved to Reading, where Mr.

Bond worked for the Post Office. Michael attended Presentation College, a Roman Catholic school in Reading, but dropped out of school at 1. During World War II, he served in the both the Royal Air Force and the British Army. Mr. Bond said Paddington Bear had partly been inspired by his memories of child evacuees passing through Reading from London.“They all had a label round their neck with their name and address on and a little case or package containing all their treasured possessions,” he told The Guardian in 2.

So Paddington, in a sense, was a refugee, and I do think that there’s no sadder sight than refugees.”Photo. An illustration of Paddington Bear.

Credit. R. W. Alley Mr. Bond sold his first short story in 1. London Opinion, and said later that he had written it outside a tent in Cairo. Over the next decade, he had numerous short stories published and radio plays performed, but “it was a good year if I made a hundred pounds,” he wrote in “Third Book of Junior Authors.”He began working for the BBC after the war and, even after “A Bear Called Paddington” was published, he did not immediately quit his day job. It was only in 1.

Paddington novels on the world’s bookshelves, that he became a full- time writer. He did not limit his work to Paddington or to print, but animals did dominate his work. In 1. 96. 8 he created “The Herbs,” an animated British television series with characters including Dill the Dog, Sage the Owl and the popular Parsley the Lion, who was rewarded with his own spinoff series. Mr. Bond also wrote children’s books about Olga da Polga, a guinea pig, and a mouse called Thursday; for adult readers he created Monsieur Pamplemousse, a culinary detective with a dog named Pommes Frites. But he was always best known for Paddington, whose fame grew wildly in the 1. BBC in Britain and later on various networks including PBS, Nickelodeon and HBO in the United States.

The merchandising made Mr. Bond wealthy, but the pressure took its toll.“A black cloud hung over me for about two years,” he told the London newspaper The Daily Mail in 1. I became overtired and started taking sleeping pills at night and a lot of whiskey to wake me up. I thought about suicide.”Mr.

Bond credited the spirit of Paddington with helping him through difficult times. There is something so upright about him,” he added. I wouldn’t want to let him down.”Other series and television movies followed. A movie with live actors and a computer- animated bear, voiced by Ben Whishaw, was released in 2. A sequel is expected this year. Mr. Bond was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1.

The Paddington book series seemed to end in 1. Mr. Bond wrote “Paddington Here and Now,” in which our hero has his shopping cart towed and his immigration status questioned. Mr. Bond’s latest novel, “Paddington’s Finest Hour,” was published in April of this year. Mr. Bond married Brenda Mary Johnson in 1. He married Susan Marfrey Rogers in 1. She survives him, as do a daughter, Karen Jankel; a son, Anthony; and four grandchildren. Mr. Bond and his first wife decided on joint custody for the original Paddington bear, that Christmas gift of long ago.

One would call the other, Mr. Bond once told The Daily Mail, and say, “He feels like coming to you now.”Over the years, Mr. Bond received fan letters from adults who credited Paddington with feats of remarkable emotional support, and this did not surprise the bear’s creator. He told The Sunday Telegraph: “If I bumped into Paddington one day, I wouldn’t be at all surprised. He feels very real to me, you see.”Continue reading the main story.