Who created Paddington Bear in the original books?

Michael Bond created Paddington Bear in the original books.

Bond was a British author and television cameraman who developed the character after seeing a lonely teddy bear in a London shop near Paddington Station. He bought the bear as a Christmas present for his wife, then began imagining a story about a refugee bear arriving in Britain with only a suitcase and a label around his neck.

The first Paddington story grew from that idea and was published in 1958. Bond continued writing Paddington stories for decades, creating the bear's distinctive mixture of good manners, optimism and accidental chaos. His books also established the Browns, Paddington's adoptive English family.

A common mix-up is to credit the later films with inventing Paddington's personality. The films adapt and expand ideas already present in Bond's books, while the character's core origins belong to Bond's original writing.