Cathy's Art Diary

Fun exhibition at the British Library looking at the children’s book character Paddington. This was a beautifully designed show with fun installations such as an animated breakfast table, pictures of different versions of Paddington walking round the walls of the show with you and good clips for the TV versions and the films. It was also packed full of original illustrations from many versions of the books and therefore became a history of illustration in the late 20th century. It explained various stories in the series using those illustration. The first toy version from 1972 was there and the typewriter that Michael Bond wrote the first stories on. Things I learnt? That Michael Bond had been a camera man on Blue Peter and that Paddington is a UNICEF champion for children. What a versatile bear! Closes 31 October 2021 Review Telegraph  

Delightful display at the Museum of London looking at Paddington Bear in the light of the recent film. There were a number of items lent by the author Michael Bond including the typewriter on which he write some of the stories and letters which children had sent to Paddington at 32 Windsor Garden which had been forwarded to him. Oddly enough there were lots of parallels with the Sherlock Holmes exhibition as both are enduring characters plus both seem to have a new incarnation for each generation. My version was the 1970s cartoon and it was great to see one of the original bears from that as well as some of the flat background characters. I watched a little girl looking at the costume for the new Paddington and I guess that will be her version. Incidentally I do realise the new version is a cartoon but the animators made a costume so they could animated the texture and movement of his clothes and, yes I loved the film! Most fascinating was to see that in the original ...