Karen Jankel, Daughter of Author Michael Bond, Tells Stories of London’s Lovable Paddington Bear

While in London last November 2024, I searched for the latest film releases, as the schedule differs from the US. It was a pleasant surprise to find that “Gladiator II” opened a week earlier than in the United States. However, the real thrill came with the early release of “Paddington in Peru” on November 3^rd, almost three months ahead of the US schedule. The anticipation and surprise of these early releases added an extra layer of accomplishments to my trip, culminating in the joy of not only watching “Paddington in Peru” at the Curzon Theater in London but also being able to correspond with Karen Jankel, who lives in London and is the daughter of Michael Bond, the beloved author of over 150 Paddington stories.

Karen was two years old when her father published the first Paddington Bear book. She wrote books with her father and continued the business after his death in 2017. In my interview with Karen, she sheds light on how Paddington was an integral part of her family and continues to be.

On a sidenote, I’m a former teacher in Naperville, Illinois, who worked for 27 years. I wrote the curriculum for the district teachers, including myself. One of the most rewarding units was a four-week study of the Amazon Basin, where Peru is located. As you might assume, I was delighted to speak with Karen about the movie “Paddington in Peru.”

Sarah K. Adamson: I read that you visited the sets in Peru. Please tell me a little about where you were and what you experienced?

Karen Jankel: Way back in 2010 or 2012, when I went, nobody there knew Paddington at all. The only stuffed bears were a few being sold at the airport in Lima, but it was very special actually stepping out onto the runway and arriving in Peru for the first time. I kind of felt it was almost like going home, and yet I’d never been before.

I read that when you visited the film sets, they brought in objects to make the sets, which was interesting.

Yes, for the film, they brought in more trees for Aunt Lucy’s home, and I thought that was great. In the UK, the film set was extraordinary. It was a huge farm, and they turned it into the darkest Peru, and they brought in over 50,000 trees. The sets were three-dimensional. They had a rope bridge that went over a stream and to Aunt Lucy’s cabin, and you had to climb over the rope bridge, which was amazing.

I honestly had no idea how popular Paddington Bear is in London and actually the United Kingdom. Please tell me your experience with the Queen’s Jubilee in 2022 and the wonderful video of Paddington joining the queen for tea.

Yes, that was really special. I wasn’t personally involved in making it happen, but they did tell me about it three months ahead of time before they’d even done the filming. They told me that it was going to happen. I got called—it was the day of our daughter’s wedding, a pretty special day, so I can remember the date—it was March 19^th. They rang me and said, “We’re going to do this, but you can’t tell anybody because it’s absolutely top secret.” Not only did I not tell anybody, but the queen herself didn’t tell her family either. So, it was a complete surprise to them, too. And everybody kept it under wraps, but it was absolutely amazing. I mean, it’s so special. So special and so sad. My dad never got to see it, of course, because he died in 2017. This happened five years later.

I believe you said that Paddington was a part of your family growing up. I was wondering about that. Did you have a lot of different Paddington bears? I know the bear changed over the years with different designs and other touches.

The original bear that inspired my father to write the stories was one that he bought as a last-minute Christmas present for my mother. It was Christmas Eve, 1956, when he bought the bear. He took him home, and they sat him on the mantlepiece in their tiny one-room flat in Arville Gardens, quite close to Notting Hill.

My father was then working as a television cameraman for the BBC. He’d always wanted to write. My parents had this bear, and it just inspired him. He began writing and named him Paddington, and he wrote the first story. [The family lived near Paddington Station at the time.]

That was how the original bear came into our lives. I was born in August 1958, exactly two months to the day before the first book was published. By the time I was born and became aware of my surroundings, we had a bear that lived with us, and he still lives with me.

The bear is of my father’s imagination.  Paddington was very much a part of the family from day one for me. So, I grew up with this extra member of the family. My father said it was a bit like when I married my husband, as there were now three people. I keep saying that my husband feels the same way about our marriage.

Paddington is very, very real to me. When the first film was made, the very first image I saw of the bear in the film, and I was with my father at the time, it was a still image. We went into a screening room, and there was this big image of Paddington, no hat, no duffle coat, just the bear on the screen that they created. It was so moving because it was like meeting a long-lost member of the family. He was real to me, yet I’d never actually seen him. 

Yes, it does.

It was terribly special, actually. And because, physically, they’ve got the bear absolutely right. He just looks like the Paddington that I saw in my own mind.

Oh, thank you for that. That’s such a wonderful story. What life lessons did you learn from your father, Michael Bond, the author of the Paddington Stories?

Well, the kind of lessons that Paddington himself teaches. My father was a very polite man, and also very kind. And, of course, Paddington is as well. He taught me that you should always be kind to other people and that you should always think of others. My father was one who thought of others, and I think that’s what Paddington does in his own way. So, my father taught me those life lessons, and so, therefore, Paddington did, really, because Paddington was an extension of my father.

Can you tell us about writing a Paddington book with your father?

There are two picture books that we wrote together. The first one [was] “Paddington Goes to Hospital,” and we collaborated at the time on a book. The idea behind that is that I spent the first few years of my life, more or less, in a hospital with a hip condition. So, I had a lot of experience at hospitals. It was a nice story to do, and it is a lighthearted way of telling children about when you go to the hospital.

After he died, our agent at the time found an old manuscript, which we’d written many years before as a short story to go into a magazine for the charity. So I then expanded it and slightly rewrote it to turn into “Paddington’s Easter Egg Hunt,” the next one.

When we wrote together, one of us would write something and then send it to the other one; then the other one would fill it in. We’d do it backward and forward.

That’s wonderful. I was wondering a little bit about the origin of Paddington’s tag, “Please look after this bear, thank you.” I was researching, and one idea was that it came from the children of London families during World War II who were sent out to different farms with just a luggage tag stating their name, school, and evacuation authority. Is part of the story, the connection with London?

Yes, that’s actually true, and it was the combination of refugees coming from overseas and evacuees. The evacuees were ones you mentioned who went out to live— to stay away from London or stay away from the cities, and they did. They all had presumably their names and addresses or their details on a label that they had hanging. And then they had their belongings in small bags in those days, probably actually cardboard, but they looked like leathers or cardboard suiters with old-fashioned suitcases.

It was that memory, my father’s memories, that inspired him to have Paddington with his suitcase; his suitcase is so darling. And then his secret compartment, of course, in his suitcase, where he keeps all his really important papers.

There’s something endearing about that bear. Do you find that?

Oh, absolutely. He’s good and he means well, and there’s just something very appealing about him. He’s very recognizable, of course, with his hat and his duffle coat, and there have been many different interpretations of him over the years by different artists. But if you put him in his hat and duffle coat, you instantly know it’s Paddington.

I just love Olivia Coleman’s performance in the film. She’s absolutely brilliant. I think every actor who’s been asked to be a part of the Paddington films has sort of jumped at the chance. In talking about the second movie, both Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman are huge stars, and the film actually showcases them.

I’ve been in a press conference with Hugh Grant, and I think Paddington does attract lovely people and funny people. He does that, and over the years, as I was running the business, all the people that we worked with were just lovely people. There’s something about him that just attracts those qualities.

I was also very surprised in London to find out there was a Paddington Bear fan club Facebook group with over 90,000 people. I joined that and was vetted. I couldn’t believe all the women. It’s primarily women with pictures of themselves with Paddington. I don’t know if you’ve seen that. Have you done anything with that group?

Well, I’ve joined anonymously, I have to say.

Oh, yay. You get to see all the wonderful photos.

I also find it very interesting to see what people are saying.

Is there anything you’d like to say about Paddington? 

I feel incredibly fortunate that he’s a part of my life and continues to be. And through him, although my father died—well, gosh, this year it’ll be eight years—he’s still very much there because of Paddington, which is wonderful. I think that is something that I feel incredibly fortunate to have him as part of my life.