It all started on Christmas Eve in 1956, when a cameraman Michael Bond noticed a small bear on a shelf in a London store near the Paddington station and bought it as a present for his wife Brenda. The bear inspired Bond to write a story, and in 10 days he had written the first book. After the first Paddington book was accepted, Michael Bond went on to write a whole series and by 1965 his books were so successful that that he was able to give up his job with the BBC in order to become a full-time writer.
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The action of the story takes place in London of 1950s. Each chapter in the books about Paddington is a completed story, which describes Paddington's adventures in different situations. All the stories develop in the same way. At first Paddington has a brainwave, then he gets into troubles, but finally everything comes to the happy ending. Furthermore, all the chapters are connected with the same characters, which are in some way entangled in Paddington's adventure. They are typical and very easy to remember.
Mr. Brown tries to be strict and responsible, but in fact he is kind and friendly family man, sometimes he is slow on an uptake. Mrs. Brown is gently and careful mother who dearly loves her children. Mrs. Bird is the Brown's housekeeper. She is strict, motherly woman, who loves all the Browns and her opinion is very important for them. Judy and Jonathan are smart and active children of the Browns. Mr. Gruber is the owner of an antique shop and Paddington's best friend. The small bear every day has his elevenses with Mr. Gruber. He always explained Paddington new information about everything. Mr. Curry is the Brown's mean and disgusting next-door neighbour, who always tries to take advantages from everybody. But, of course, the main character of all the stories is Paddington. .
Despite the fact that now Paddington lives in London, originally he came from Darkest Peru where he was brought up by his Aunt Lucy.