Please Look After This Bear - Book Launch and Community Conversation
About this Event
Join us in person to celebrate Please Look After This Bear: How Paddington Became British by Melanie Ramdarshan Bold and Aishwarya Subramanian (OUP, 2026) and to build a conversation about its themes.
Community Conversations are designed for everyone in the room to have a chance to engage in meaningful conversation with others in the children's literature and education community. All welcome!
In 1958, a little marmalade-loving brown bear from Peru named Paddington was introduced to the post-war British public. Inspired by his creator Michael Bond's memories of displaced Jewish children in the United Kingdom during World War II, Paddington became a symbol of how to treat refugees with kindness. Author Bond was clear from the outset about Paddington's refugee status. Nearly sixty-five years later, the bear's legacy has evolved into a transmedia phenomenon; his once marginalized image has now been licenced to numerous British organisations -- such as Barbour and Marks & Spencer -- and more recently, even become a symbolic figurehead of national mourning following Queen Elizabeth II's death in 2022.
Please Look After This Bear analyzes the titular character's transformation from displaced Peruvian bear to member of a wealthy, upper-class West London family, raising questions about migration, assimilation, tolerance, and national identity. The first of its kind to trace the publication history of the Paddington stories, this cutting-edge, critical text not only offers a unique sociocultural biography on the series' origins and background, but looks closely at its contemporary adaptations and afterlives, citing its emergence as a British cultural symbol across the globe. To date, Paddington books have been translated into forty languages (including Latin) and have sold more than 35 million copies worldwide.
Told in poignant, incisive prose, this book reveals how Paddington evolved from an unassuming Peruvian bear on the printed page to an international transmedia phenomenon and icon of Britishness. With thoughtful nods both to nostalgia and to national identity, this book traces the character's dramatic change across the ever-changing British historical and political landscape of the past nearly-seven decades.
Melanie Ramdarshan-Bold is a Professor of Youth Literature and Culture at the University of Glasgow, specialising in children’s and young adult books, publishing, and the ways stories shape young people’s lives. She has written extensively about children’s and YA literature, its authors, publishers and readers, with a particular focus on how young people, especially those from marginalised communities, use books to understand their identities and express themselves. Her research examines the intersections of authorship, reading, publishing and inclusion, and how they shape literary landscapes for young audiences. She is the co-author of Please Look After This Bear: How Paddington Became British, which examines how a migrant bear from Peru became a much-loved national icon. The book reflects her wider interest in Britishness, diaspora, and migration. Across her research and her collaborations with the cultural sector, she is committed to amplifying youth voices and making children’s and YA publishing more inclusive and representative.
Special Guests (each will offer 5 minute responses to the themes)
Patrice Lawrence is an award-winning writer for readers of all ages. She is the current Waterstones Children's Laureate, promoting authentic representation in children's books and the benefits of story-sharing for children facing challenges. Prior to becoming a published children's writer, Patrice worked in the charity sector for over 20 year in roles championing social justice, equality and children's rights.
Farrah Serroukh is the Director of Research and Strategic Development at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) where she initiated the ground-breaking and influential Reflecting Realities research series. To date, she has published nine annual Reflecting Realities surveys designed to determine the extent and quality of ethnic representation in children's literature. The practical application of this research in the classroom is detailed in Representation in Children’s Literature (Corwin/CLPE 2024). Farrah was awarded the UKLA’s Brenda Eastwood Award in recognition of her innovative and sector leading work on ethnic representation in children’s literature in 2019 and received NATE’s Diversity and Inclusion Award in 2021. In 2025 she was awarded a scholarship from the College of Social Sciences at Glasgow University to pursue a PhD that will enable her to deepen and extend upon her work in this area.
Seraphina Simmons-Bah is the Head of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) at Goldsmiths. She has previously worked as an Early Years teaching assistant, a Primary class teacher, and a senior teaching fellow and leader in the School of Education at the University of Greenwich. Her doctoral research explores how teachers can use literature-based practice to teach about race and racialised issues with children aged 3-11. Her research & knowledge exchange activity encompasses CPD delivery, conference presentations & guest lectures, and publication. Within this, she has collaborated with colleagues at the University of Greenwich to run year-long research projects on belonging and oracy with early years settings and primary schools from across the Greenwich Learning Partnership (GLP).
Mehrunissa Shah is the academic lead for the English Education group at UCL Institute of Education, which includes colleagues teaching on the PGCE English and English with Drama courses, as well as those teaching on the MA English Education. She is also the programme leader for the PGCE English and English with Drama course and a subject tutor on the PGCE English course. She has worked at the Institute of Education since 2019. Mehru’s current doctoral research examines the development of professional identities among early career teachers. Mehru has been Chair of the London Association for the Teaching of English since 2017.
Conversation Host
Dr Darren Chetty is a writer and a specialist in Philosophy for /with Children, antiracist education and children’s literature based at University College London. He contributed to the bestselling book, The Good Immigrant, edited by Nikesh Shukla. Darren taught in London primary schools for twenty years and advises on CLPE’s Reflecting Realities and Penguin / Runnymede Trust’s Lit in Colour. Darren has published seven books to date, as co-author and co-editor including Beyond the Secret Garden: Racially Minoritised People in British Children’s Books (with Karen Sands O’Connor) and Our Wales: A People’s History (with Martin Johnes and Matt Abbott).
Organised by Darren Chetty in conjunction with the CLPE and English & Media Centre. Supported by Books for Keeps. Bookseller: Letterbox Library.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00
