Paddington Bear, like our late Queen, is such a beloved character, who has become an important part of our history having been around for more than 6 decades, and we have taken him into our hearts.

When Buckingham Palace came up with the idea of a tea party to open the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations with Paddington, it was genius. Such a wonderful script written by the talented Frank Cottrell-Boyce and the Queen pulling out a marmalade sandwich from her handbag. What a joy and what a fabulous way to start the celebrations. We all saw a side of her, we didn't often see. Similar to the sketch with James Bond at the London Olympic Celebrations, also penned by Cottrell-Boyce.

I'm sure many of us wish we’d had the chance to have afternoon tea and a marmalade sandwich with the Queen. Lucky old Paddington! Such an unlikely pair, it was heartwarming, and she looked so well.

And of course they always had something in common. When he was found by The Browns at Paddington Station, Paddington wasn’t too sure how old he was so the Browns decided to start again at one. They also decided that he should have two birthdays a year (just like the Queen!) and so he celebrates these on 25th June and 25th December.

Paddington was born in 1958 by the pen of Michael Bond. Bond worked for the BBC as a cameraman but he loved to write. Coming home from work late one Christmas Eve, in Selfridges London he found a solitary bear left on a shelf, felt sorry for it, and brought it home for his wife. They called it Paddinton as they lived near to the station and that little bear inspired him to start writing. Just a week later, he had tons of content, sent the book to his agent who liked i and it was accepted by William Collins & Sons (now Harper Collins).

The publishers commissioned an illustrator, Peggy Fortnum, and the very first book A Bear Called Paddington was published on 13th October 1958. 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.

Paddington is adorable. A very polite bear, very well-meaning and full of good intentions but his trusting nature can often get him into trouble. 

Fortunately for Paddington, whatever scrapes he gets into, things always turn out alright for him in the end. As Bond commented: "He’s never put down or deflated. He has the naivety of a child and the sophistication of an adult."

Paddington is one of those characters that has stood the test of time. Quite often they are characters from picture books because they connect us all. There is no barrier to entry and in spite of language, reading capability, and any other divides, we can all enjoy them. And of course, picture books are the first books we encounter and fall in love with when we’re young. Paddington was definitely one of the characters that made me fall in love with books.

Michael Bond had the vision to come up with this adorable little bear but it’s also about how that bear is brought to life by artists. Starting with Peggy Fortnum in 1958, many artists have given Paddington life over the years including the late David McKee.

After the Jubilee, artist Eleanor Tomlinson painted an image of the Queen and Paddington walking together hand-in-hand, which quickly went viral on social media.

Charming sketch of the Queen and Paddington goes viral as ...

If you love Paddington as much as we do, take a look at some of our favourite Paddington Bear books below.