Michael Bond

Michael Bond has written over one hundred books. He was born in 1926 in Newbury, Berkshire, and grew up in Reading. At the age of fourteen, he left school and worked for a year in a law office before being hired by the BBC as an engineer. During the war, he served in the RAF (Royal Air Force) and the army, and in 1947, at a camp in Cairo, he wrote his first short story. Its acceptance by the magazine London Opinion planted the seeds of a future career. Before dedicating himself to writing, he spent many creative years as a BBC cameraman. The idea for creating a hero who became famous worldwide came to him one snowy Christmas Eve. He sought shelter in Selfridges, one of London's largest department stores, where he saw a teddy bear left alone on a shelf. This was his inspiration for "A Bear Called Paddington," published in 1958. Teddy bears don't need much encouragement, and so Paddington filled the pages of fourteen novels and many illustrated books. Paddington, the bear, became a mascot of London and is still used in many projects for both children and adults. Bond was recognized twice for his contribution to children's literature: in 1997, he was awarded the OBE (Order of the British Empire), and in 2002, he was honored at a special event by the National Portrait Gallery in London, which celebrated a century of children's literature. He lives in London.