 Fygo. Fygo i'n ffordd i'r Llyfrgell Llyfrgell. Fygo i'r Llyfrgell Llyfrgell yn y gwrdd gyrdd ffordd i'r Llyfrgell Llyfrgell yn y gyrdd y llwyaf yma, Paddington, ymddangos y ffordd i'r Llyfrgell, ychydig i'r Llyfrgell yma ac yn fwylo'r gwrdd ar y llwyffrwynt ar gyfer cyfnod. Fygo i'r Llyfrgell James Andrews. Rwy'n gyrdd i'r Llyfrgell, ar gyfer cyfnod yma, ac eu gweithio'r llyfrgell wych yn yr ysgol. I'm delighted this evening to be joined by two special guests around the Brown's family kitchen table. On my immediate left is Karen Jankle, who is, of course, the daughter of Michael Bond, the man who, as we heard, more than six decades ago created Pabbington Bear and, in so doing, created such joy for all of us ever since. And also with us round the table is my colleague at the British Library, Alison Bailey. Alison is a curator of printed books and she is the lead curator of this exhibition. So thank you both for joining us. We're going to talk for about ten minutes or so, but we want to hear from you at home. So as of now, please feel free to be typing your questions in the dialogue box at the bottom of your screen. Feel free to direct your questions to Karen about Paddington, about her father, or to Alison about the British Library collections and her curation of this exhibition. Or just share thoughts, memories even, of your enjoyment and reading of Paddington. We'd love to hear from you and we'll get to those in just a few minutes. But for now, Karen, I'm going to start with you, if I may. We've just had a great walk round the exhibition. Tell us what you thought of it and how do you feel seeing your father's work and Paddington celebrated here at the British Library? Well, first of all, I think it's an absolutely wonderful exhibition, beautifully put together. It's always quite strange seeing items in the glass case that normally sit on a shelf at home. But there's something rather wonderful about seeing them all brought together to tell the whole story of Paddington. And it's absolutely delighted to be here. Fantastic. Tell us a couple of the items that are your personal items you've lent to us. Well, there's one of the illustrations done by Rw Ali Bob Ali, which is very special because it was a book that actually wrote with my father Paddington Ghost of Hospital. So that's got a very special meaning. And probably the first edition of Paddington's book, which my father dedicated to his own parents. So obviously that's got personal meaning to me as well. Yeah, very special. I hesitate to say you're as old as Paddington. I'm going to say you're as young as Paddington. And the reason I say that is because you were born the same year that first Paddington book, a bear called Paddington, was published. So quite extraordinarily, really. You have literally grown up in parallel with Paddington. So tell us what that was like. Yes, well, the 13th is always very lucky in our family. Paddington, the first book was published on the 13th of October. I was born exactly two months earlier on the 13th of August. And so by the time I was aware of Paddington, he was very much established. He was very much part of the family. So I've really never known a life without Paddington. The only problem is that every time he has a major anniversary like his 60th, I'm reminded of just how old I am. Can you scope it? Did your father read you? I wonder, did he read you the Paddington stories? Did he maybe try them out on you before he published them as you got older? He did read them to me, but never until he'd finished them. So he certainly didn't try them out. Because he was a writer, he didn't ever just tell stories off the top of his head. He had to not only write them, but make sure that he was happy with the finished article. So he would read them before they were published, but he certainly didn't try out ideas. Interesting. I think I read that Mr and Mrs Brown, who of course take Paddington in when they find him at Paddington Station, that they were at least partly based on your father's parents, or your grandparents. Do you have a sense of who your father was drawing on for the character of Paddington himself? I often think that there were elements of my own father in Paddington. He was a bit of an amalgam, really. My grandfather, his father, was very polite. He always wore a hat which he raised. So that definitely influenced Paddington. But I think he's a bit of a mix of different people. But my father had a few Paddington-type characteristics himself. As you grew older, I wonder, I don't know if it's life imitating art, or imitating life, did you, I wonder if anything in the adventures or scrapes that maybe you found their way into the Paddington stories? Just a few of them. Most writers base their stories on real-life experiences that my father was no exception. But certainly, as I was growing up and I did things like when I learnt to drive Paddington took his driving test, I'm glad to say I was a slightly better driver than Paddington. I'm relieved to hear it. But definitely, going through the years, you can recognise things that I did that got into the stories. Well, let me turn for a minute to you, Alison. Firstly, did you must have read Paddington, I imagine, growing up as well? Yes, so my brother and I have a recollection of the books being on his shelves. And our parents read stories to us both quite often, so I would have heard them that way. And then I'm very familiar with the animation from the 1970s, even though to be frank, I'd have been a teenager then, but still I've obviously watched them. And also I've read Paddington stories to my own children, they're now adults, but when they were small. And we asked you to curate this exhibition, I guess maybe coming up two years ago, and what we didn't anticipate was basically everything that happened since last year. So I imagine this was the way that you curated this exhibition was not only unanticipated, but just completely different to anything you've done before. So tell us a bit how that worked practically if nothing else. Yes, so I was sort of appointed in March 2020. And so I was about two weeks on site. And then after that obviously things changed completely. And I suppose maybe one of the biggest things for me is that we didn't really have ready access on site. So we didn't have ready access to the material. So I spent some very focused days where we were allowed to come in standing up in the mount room in the exhibition with the mask on largely by myself, standing up at a barrow looking at things very quickly and writing copious notes to make sure I'd absolutely tied down the kind of details of the book and on the storyline. But one thing I wanted to say was Rhea in the film mentioned that this is very much a kind of team effort and I was very reliant really on Rhea and the four people who were from exhibitions who worked very closely as a team. So for example, if they were on site then they would look at something and tell us whether it was going to be suitable for the exhibition etc. So maybe it made you even more reliant on other people and the fact that people will put themselves out for you. And then the other thing I suppose I noticed is that we had to talk about loans remotely. This is the first time I've had the good fortune to meet carers. It's lovely to meet you in person but we had to do things via technology. And also, I wasn't quite sure what size things were. I mean, people sent measurements, but in my head I actually finally saw them. I was quite surprised. Some things were smaller than I thought, some things were bigger than I thought. Anyway, so it's a huge relief to me to find that everything's come together. And you said you of course read Paddington as you grew up so you came to the exhibition with some knowledge. But of course as you began to research and read more about Paddington and Michael Bond I'm sure you learnt a lot as well. What was the say a few things that most surprised you that you learnt along the way? So I suppose one of the things was quite how many stories there are about Paddington. I mean there were just hundreds really. So that was one thing. And one thing you were talking about before a bit about the way that Michael's family influenced the different characters so that sort of as we touched on already that Michael's father, both in his politeness and the raising of the hat sort of was fed into the description of Paddington but also in his dislike of DIY sort of fed into the picture of Mr Brown. So that was interesting and also I suppose the sheer range of different illustrators. So in the exhibition we've got about 10 different illustrators of Paddington and that's not all the illustrators there are. I mean we couldn't put absolutely everybody in so it was just the sheer breadth and wealth of it really. Did we have everything in the British Library you were expecting that we should have or with the gaps that you discovered along the way? Well I think we had most of the things I was expecting. Maybe one or two gaps. And Karen going back to you actually Alison was talking about what it was like to curate an exhibition in a pandemic. How do you think Paddington would have coped in a pandemic in lockdown? I think he would have coped pretty well. He's very helpful there so I'm sure he would have been very helpful to his neighbours and I think the only thing he'd have struggled a bit was wearing a mask because I think it might have got stuck on his whiskers. It might yes, yes, yes. We heard there that and in the video as well that Paddington is of course he's loved in this country but he's loved around the world and when we were walking around we saw additions in Japanese and Finnish and I think it's been translated into most languages. A question to both of you but starting with you Karen what is it about Paddington that just connects with people I suppose both geographically but also across generations? I think first of all it's his character I think he's a very likeable, lovable character and the fact that he's very well meaning and I think the stories themselves disaster has always seemed to perform Paddington you kind of have that comfort of knowing everything is going to come out all right in the end and I think that's sort of universally that that would appeal to people so that's probably why they're so popular all over the world. Alison? So yes touching on what Karen, picking on what Karen said I think it's, you know, he's just so kind and polite it's a very attractive quality and the stories have a universal themes at home and belonging and that kind of thing which resonate with people and then there are all the different ways that he's been depicted so people can find him in books, films, adaptations but underneath he's still that same bear the one who's famed for his politeness and kindness Paddington must have taken you around the world I guess He has over the years I think the most exciting country I visited because of Paddington was Peru Tell us how Paddington is perceived in Peru Well until the films came along Paddington wasn't really known but the great thing is that the films introduced a whole new audience I think to Paddington and now he's popular in many other countries but I think that was the country that I most wanted to go to Of course and I believe the Peruvian ambassador to the UK is one of our guests on this digital private view so we're very glad to have him there So you got Aldi, you talked about what it was like growing up with Paddington and being read Paddington by your father How did your perspectives on him change as you grew older? He just became I mean he was always real to me but that much more of a member of the family so it's more of a change from just being in the books to being actually a part of our family It's quite difficult to describe really if you haven't grown up with something yourself So he was, he was a real presence and he still very much is I mean that's what's so wonderful my father's no longer here but he sort of is through Paddington which is lovely Alison we heard in the film with Rhea there that you had some help from in curating the exhibition from some local school children say a bit more about how they work with you and with us on this show Yeah so we're very lucky and I understand that some of the pupils and the staff from these schools might be watching this so hello and thanks very much for all your involvement two local schools in Camden the year four pupils from Argyll Primary School they helped devise the Marble Lade Trail so you might be able to spot some of the Marble Lade splats behind us so essentially they ask you to react to some of the objects that are in the exhibition either by doing an action or they might ask a question about it so it helps people engage and we also had help from year three pupils from Edith Neville School and we asked them which thing you'd pack in your suitcase if you were going on a journey like Paddington and they provided artwork and that's been digitised and you can see that at the very end of the exhibition and the adventures section I think my favourite one of those is the one thing that one of the children would bring was three Big Macs which I think Paddington would probably approve of and I should say as well that of course all of the local students the children who participated in this exhibition all of their names are credited to the exhibition plus their teachers of course which is important and maybe one more for you Alison before we open up obviously this exhibition is in London we hope the exhibition will tour Covid willing and so on tour outside London but for us it's really important as a national impact right from the start and tell us a bit about the pack your suitcase with Paddington campaign that's reaching out to schools across the country OK so that's going to have a national campaign for children across the UK and it's sort of similar to the idea with the Edith Neville School which is we're asking children to design a suitcase and fill it with things they'd like to take on a journey and you can find out far more about it by looking on our website our Discovering Children's Books website so if you look on the bl.uk website and look and discover and learn you can find out more about it we've asked some famous authors and illustrators to show people the kind of thing we have it offers people an opportunity both to provide artwork or written work creatively and the deadline is the next Friday the 16th of July and there are book tokens to be won there are so get cracking on that and I would also say that if you follow bl.uk learning bl.uk learning on twitter that they are reposting really good examples every day of some of the work that the children are coming up with so look let's go to some questions that are that are coming in and well look here's the first one for you Karen from Layla who asks why does he Paddington we assume, eat marmalade well when my father wrote the first book he knew that bears like sweet things and he himself likes or liked marmalade but it turned out to be rather useful because marmalade has chunks and Paddington finds the chunks very handy for sticking things together the two tables that you saw in half accidentally and so on good and one, well who's one to both of you from Tash who asks what's your favourite illustration of Paddington so Alison let's start with you your favourite that's really quite difficult but from this exhibition I'm very fond of Karen's Lent which is a Peggy Thorne illustration of Judy holding Paddington's paw just outside 32 Windsor Gardens it's a quite small pen and ink drawing but it's just that sense of Paddington's slight anxiety he's not quite sure how Mrs Bird's going to react to him and they're just hovering outside the doodle and Karen It's a difficult one to answer I loved all the Peggy Thorne illustrations from the original books but also Bob Alley's illustration of the picture books because he brings another dimension to Paddington I think that's the wonderful thing about illustrators that the writer writes a story but then the illustrator brings just another dimension to the stories Did you ever as a child draw Illustrate Paddington I wish I had the talent and here's another one from Alley who asks this is to you Karen do you still have the original bear the original bear we heard that your father bought at Salfridge's for the Christmas present that sparked everything that happened since have you still got that original bear the answer is yes he still lives with the family he's too precious with the he wouldn't ever put him in a glass case which his wife is not part of the exhibition he's quite shy actually but what we do have in the exhibition is his trunk with some of his personal belongings so although you can't meet the bear himself you can see some of his personal belongings but the bear is still alive and well good and we've got a comment here which I will read out from Francis who says that the biggest thrill for me as a child at Christmas was knowing that I would get the latest Paddington book down to the tree which I'm sure that resonates with all of us and we've also got a comment well it's really addressed to you Karen from Olivia who says that I will be storytelling at the British Library as part of the exhibition and there is of course a big schools and a family program coming up over the summer so Olivia says I'll be storytelling at the British Library and I wanted to thank you and your amazing father for creating such a magical, compassionate and inspiring character Paddington needs means sorry Paddington means so much to so many people across the world we all need to be more Paddington well Olivia I could not agree with you more I think that's a lovely what you've written and thank you for being a storyteller well absolutely and yeah we all need to be more Paddington I think is a good message for the times he's a more existential question to seem is Paddington real? How can you even answer that? I'm just reading it out Don't blame the messenger Absolutely Paddington's real Absolutely I mean lovely comment there from Olivia you must have had so many people coming up to you and your father when he was alive had so many people come up to him just talking about I guess the impact that Paddington had on them as children and probably as adults as well They did and some of the stories are just wonderful and it's lovely I can't take any of the credit but people often share stories of how much Paddington means to them and he does to me too so I understand it Do you I'm obviously younger children reading Paddington now are reading it with a different eye to those children who read the story back in when they were first published Do you get the sense that people are responding to different things in Paddington now or is it that universal theme? I think it's a universal theme and I think what's quite clever is that although my father started writing the stories back in the 1950s they kind of moved with the time so the kind of era changed but Paddington's fundamental what made him Paddington's stayed the same it's just the world around him changed but he stayed the same Larson what's the most recent Paddington book that we feature in the exhibition because as you say Paddington changed and the context changed So the one you could see in the film called Paddington at St Paul's that was published in 2018 and that was the last picture book that Michael Bond wrote himself and that was illustrated by R.W. Alley so we do have something slightly later than that but that I think is the one that encapsulates everything because it's 60 years after the first one and it was the last one that Michael Bond himself wrote Maybe one last one for you Karen that of course as we saw in the film Paddington appears in all sorts of different media and the films especially I know I've had a big effect you talked about in Peru that really people discovered him through the movies for a whole new generation that must be a common experience to discover Paddington through those films and then almost work their way back into the books definitely and I think that when you came on to the television for example in the 70s that also introduced new sort of more people reading the books as a result of that as well Great well look I'm just checking to see if we have any more questions and I think that we have got through them all so we will time is ticking on and we we and you all have marmalade sandwiches waiting for you on the dinner table so we will draw this to a close but before we do I do just want to run through a few thanks again of course to Karen and to Alison for being here with us this evening and to Rhea and Liz who we saw earlier on the film and the year for children of course of our primary school who came in to shoot especially for us earlier this week to all the teams and the British Labour who worked on this you heard some of them earlier it really does take so many people from across the organisation coming together to make something like this happen and especially as Alison said in the rather strange circumstances of Covid that was all the more true to our lenders of course which includes Karen our lenders, our supporters our partners and of course our sponsors who you heard about earlier as a reminder that the exhibition runs through until the end of October so plenty of time but come early and come often there's a number of events around it and you can find out all about that from our BL website and there's a link that will come up shortly and you can follow that to find out more so all the remains for me is to say thank you for joining us this evening and have a great evening