An early colour photograph (1915) taken by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii: handcar outside Petrozavodsk on the Murmansk railway.
Paddington Bear is the story of a refugee; there is a theme of immigrant struggle in the Paddington Bear stories: A much loved fictional.character in children’s literature, he first appeared in 1958 in the book ”A BEAR CALLED PADDINGTON’”, written by Michael Bond ( who lived with his wife near Paddington Station (picture above)), and with illustrations by Peggy Fortnum. Paddington Station is a very important place for this lovable bear. He was found by Mr & Mrs Brown in London where he arrived from deepest, darkest Peru (Latin America) and named after the spectacled bear PASTUZO. He was wearing an old hat carrying a battered suitcase, a duffel coat, and a love for marmalade (the coat and boots were introduced later). The book has been translated into many languages (purpotedly 70 titles), and apparently sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.
Paddington Bear soft toy was chosen by British "channel-tunnellers” as the first item to pass through to their French counterparts (Wikipedia) when the two sides of the channel-tunnel (French: le Tunnel sous La Manche, or in English: the Chunnel) were linked in 1994. Paddington Bear also caused a scandal when a cabinet minister in Australia (in 1986), was forced to resign after failing to declare at customs his wife’s contents, and among these was a large Padding Bear. The scandal became known as the “Paddington Bear Affair”. (UK, the Telegraph/ Culture and Film, Nov. 1st 2014).
Google loves Paddington Bear who was celebrated in 2008 in a Google doodle for his 50th birthday. The author Michael Bond sadly passed away aged 91 on June 29th 2017.
In short Paddington Bear is a bloody foreigner…….
Square near Paddington Station
Hyde Park Corner
Connaught Street
