More Than Marmalade: Michael Bond and the Story of Paddington Bear

More Than Marmalade: Michael Bond and the Story of Paddington Bear — page 7
x wrong When he wrote A Bear Called Paddington 19 years later he gave Paddington a warm shelter with a loving family something he wished for those frightened Ger man Jewish children Throughout his life Bond sympathized with refu gees His stories reflect the confusion of coming to an unfamiliar place Immigrants need to learn new lan guages They have to figure out customs that differ from their own In a letter from Paddington written a decade ago Bond protested the United Kingdom Border Detention Center’s unjust treatment of young refugees Whenever I hear about children from foreign coun tries being put into detention centres I think how lucky I am to be living at number 32 Windsor Gar dens with such nice people as Mr and Mrs Brown Mrs Bird who looks after the Browns says if she had her way she would set the children free and lock up a few politicians in their place to see how they liked it Fortunately for Paddington the Brown family adopted the bear from darkest Peru and helped him adapt Of course Paddington’s life still wasn’t easy He tried hard to do the right thing but often he ended up making a mess The trouble he caused always needed to AUTHOR’S NOTE