Since the day in 1957 when Michael Bond came up with an idea for a children's story, his life has been dominated by a small, duffle-coat-wearing bear. Nevertheless for Bond, Paddington is just one in a whole range of characters who have had a bearing on his life. Born in 1926, Bond was brought up in Reading. He left school at 14 and became a BBC employee. After serving in both the RAF and the Army in the war he returned to the BBC, as a cameraman, as it took on a new lease of life as a television company. Bond was also the writer of The Herb Garden and a close associate of the makers of The Wombles and The Magic Roundabout.