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AS children’s author Michael Bond explains in his introduction to this new collection, he stumbled across the inspiration for his most famous creation when he was panic-buying one Christmas Eve.

He needed a stocking filler for his wife and, as it started to snow on Oxford Street, he dived into the nearest shop and spotted a lonely looking bear in the children’s department.

They named him Paddington, popped him on the mantelpiece and started talking to him. And the rest, as they say, is history. A Bear Called Paddington was published in 1958 and since then, Bond has penned 24 more adventures, with another, Love From Paddington – letters from the bear to his Aunt Lucy in darkest Peru – to be published in November, while a film starring Hugh Bonneville, Nicole Kidman and Ben Whishaw (as the voice of Paddington), will be released the same month.

This simple, red tome features 11 of the early Paddington tales, from his being discovered by Mr and Mrs Brown at Paddington Station, and charting his many Marmalade-loving mishaps. A charming present for Paddington fans young and old.

Kate Whiting