Like many immigrants, Paddington arrives in Britain apparently without a name, or any other form of identity. “It’s no coincidence that the first Paddington stories are specifically set in Notting Hill.” “In the summer 1958, just months before the first Paddington book was published, some of the worst race riots in Britain ignited, particularly the Notting Hill Riots. The first of many large groups of West Indians, called ‘Windrush’ immigrants, arrived in the late 1940s, and that cultural mix in London was not always a comfortable one. “London in the 1950s was becoming rapidly more multicultural that ever before. Thank you.” Is a reference to author Michael Bond’s experiences of seeing evacuees leaving London during the Second World War – but, significantly, this particular evacuee is coming into London during a critical time in the country’s history. It is well known that Paddington’s famous luggage label, reading: “Please look after this bear. His publishers rejected the author’s original idea to have Paddington come from Africa, so Bond subtly chose ‘Darkest’ Peru to keep that tie to the African continent. Professor Smith argues that the setting of Michael Bond’s books, and the background of his famous bear, are very carefully chosen. “But that first book, A Bear Called Paddington, published in 1958, presents issues of anti-racism in a deceptively simple story.” “Today those kinds of books are aimed at older children who, it is assumed, are better able to cope with the complex political and psychological issues. “Michael Bond’s Paddington books deal with immigration at a very subtle level,” says Professor Smith. In her research paper, Paddington Bear: A Case Study of Immigration and Otherness, Professor Smith has gone back to Paddington’s origins, Britain in 1958, a time of widespread racism, and growing multiculturalism, into which a small bear from ‘Darkest Peru’ arrives with a unique perspective on British life. Professor Angela Smith is based in the School of Culture at the University. A North East academic has discovered that the small bear is not only a fictional character who is entertaining – he is also an illegal immigrant, and even an early pioneer of racial equality.

A bear called paddington