It seems like Paddington Bear is everywhere in London at the moment. There are currently 50 large statues of the bear who came from deepest, darkest Peru, in popular sites right across London. Each has been painted by a celebrity artist such as the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, David Beckham and Stephen Fry who is pretty much here there and everywhere himself. They are to be auctioned off later this month to raise money for charity. In the meantime, visitors to London can download a special map to help locate each of the specially painted statues.
The classic stories of Paddington, written by Michael
Bond, have sold more than 35 million books worldwide and been translated into more than 40 languages. Now he has been immortalized on the Big Screen with the release of a movie starring Nicole Kidman and Julie Walters. In case you are the only person in the whole wide world who doesn’t know, when he first arrived in England he was found on Paddington Station which is how he got his name. All he had was an old bush hat plus a label on which his Aunt Lucy, who had brought him up, had written the words “Please Look After This Bear. Thank You”. Now, he lives with the Brown family at 32 Windsor Gardens, close to Portobello Road and is usually to be found wearing a blue duffle coat and carrying a rather battered case.
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