Paddington Bear

Paddington Bear is a fictional character in children's literature. He first appeared on 13 October 1958 and was subsequently featured in more than twenty books written by Michael Bond and first illustrated by Peggy Fortnum. The polite immigrant bear from darkest Peru, with his old hat, battered suitcase (complete with a secret compartment, enabling it to hold more items than it would at first appear), duffle coat and love of marmalade sandwiches has become a classic character from English children's literature.

Paddington books have been translated into 30 languages across 70 titles and sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. Over 265 licences, making thousands of different products across the United Kingdom, Europe, United States, Southeast Asia, Japan, Canada, Australia and South Africa all benefit from the universal recognition of Paddington Bear.

Paddington is an anthropomorphised bear. He is always polite—addressing people as "Mr", "Mrs", and "Miss" and very rarely by first names—and well-meaning, though he inflicts hard stares on those who incur his disapproval. He has an endless capacity for getting into trouble, but he is known to "try so hard to get things right". He is an adopted member of the (human) Brown family and thus gives his full name as "Paddington Brown".