Paddington Bear: Outta Detention, Onto Bookshelves

By Julie PH Last edited 189 months ago
Paddington Bear: Outta Detention, Onto Bookshelves
Paddington at Paddington

He’s back!

Since we first heard the news that Paddington Bear would, after a 30-year sabbatical, shake off the dust of our bookshelves and embark on some fresh adventures, it’s been all we could do to contain our excitement – though stuffing ourselves with marmalade sandwiches certainly has helped.

The wait is over. Paddington – or P.Bear, as we like to call him – is back in bookstores this week for his twelfth outing, Paddington Here and Now. And although we expect that those hoping for a nostalgic reunion with an old childhood pal will not be disappointed, as the “Here and Now” foretells, P.Bear’s seen some changes in the half-century he’s spent in Britain. The usual scrapes are to be expected: a dust-up with a player piano, a towed shopping basket debacle. And then there are the unexpected – as when the spectacled bear faces some sticky questions over his immigration status. And no he hasn’t switched to Marmite, thank you very much.

As it's also Paddington's 50th anniversary this month, there are a smattering of events planned for the upcoming weeks to, ahem, bear witness to our long-standing love for the Peruvian. And competitions! Oh, how we adore competitions. Head here for a chance to win a signed copy of the new novel. And here to win a family holiday in Darkest Peru. Do it for the children. If there are none available, borrow one!*

(*Please note that Londonist strongly encourages you to ask the child’s parents first.)

Will Paddington be deported? Well, we highly doubt it. Home Office be damned – 32 Windsor Gardens is home. England is home. It wouldn’t be a good bedtime story if it were otherwise. Might we suggest a mug of warm milk to go with it?

Image courtesy of bluebluewater’s Flickrstream under the Creative Commons Attribution license

Last Updated 05 June 2008