PAGE 86 C M Y K Daily Mail Weekend

‘I enjoy bricklaying. Like Winston Churchill, I find it restorative in times of stress. It sets the mind free’

The happiest moment you will cherish forever… The day my young daughter, Karen, was made better. She was born definite with a dislocated hip and was in and out of hospitals having operations for her first six years. One surgeon really b****red it up and made it worse. Then a very good surgeon in Oxford put it right and she made a full recov- article ery. It was such a relief. We ask a celebrity a set of devilishly The saddest time that shook your world… The death of my grandfather probing questions – and only accept when I was 13, from a heart attack. It was the first time I’d had a death in the THE definitive answer. This week: family and he was so nice to me. The unfulfilled ambition that continues Paddington creator Michael Bond to haunt you… To have a lawn with a The prized possession you value above The film you can watch time and time surface like a billiard table. The previ- all others… The original Paddington again… The Third Man. Graham ous owner of our home in north London bear I bought for my ex-wife Brenda from Greene’s screenplay is excellent filled in the garden with lots of old Selfridge’s in 1956 as a stocking-filler. and Orson Welles is wonderful. bricks. We’ve lived here 30 years and He changed my life, so I keep him safe. it’s been a losing battle trying to lay a The person who has influenced carried it in crime, so nothing could tempt me. nice lawn. Bricks and holes always The biggest regret you wish you could you most… My maternal grand- my breast pocket for four When I was ten I took a half-eaten appear, or the foxes dig it up. amend… Not buying a flat in Montmar- father. He came to live with us in years, but one day in Cairo I chocolate bar off the counter of a shop. The philosophy that underpins your tre, Paris, that I rented for 35 years. I used Reading when I was a boy and he sent my clothes to the laundry It’s still on my conscience to this day! life… Do unto others as you would to go there every month to write. I was thought highly of me – more than and it was gone for good. offered it ten years ago, but said no, and anybody else! He taught me that you The song that means most to you… All have them do unto you. In life, it’s last year the owner decided to move in. can do anything if you concentrate. The unending quest that drives you Or Nothing At All, by Frank Sinatra. important to treat people well. Nora bought me a vinyl disc of it and I on… To keep writing. I’ll be 90 in Jan- The order of service at your funeral… The temptation you wish you could The figure from history for whom you’d uary but I still write every day and I kept it for years. It reminds me of her. I’ll leave the details to my family and resist… Ferrero Rocher chocolates. I like most like to buy a pie and a pint… John hope Paddington and my other charac- The way you would spend your fantasy do as I’ve always done – which is to to have a box on the go when I’m writing. Logie Baird, the man who invented TV. ters will have plenty more adventures. I’ll eat four, then make myself stop. I’d love to watch a modern set with him 24 hours, with no travel restrictions... go where I’m pointed! At my age, I wouldn’t want an action- and discuss what’s happened since. The poem that touches your soul… The way you want to be remembered... The book that holds an everlasting reso- I’m not good on poems, but the French packed day. I’d simply board the first nance… It’s actually a weekly magazine The piece of wisdom you would pass on Eurostar to Paris with my wife Sue and As a friendly person, who was national anthem La Marseillaise stirs approachable and ready to listen. And called The Magnet, which had a running to a child… Politeness costs nothing, but me. I’m quite a Francophile at heart. go back to my old flat. My last day story about schoolboy Billy Bunter. I read it can be worth an awful lot. there was 4 December 2014. I miss it for never missing a deadline! it under the covers from the age of The misapprehension about yourself The unlikely interest that dreadfully, but on this day it would be The Plug… Love From Paddington is nine and it had a big impact on me. you wish you could erase… That writing mine! There’d be no emails, no phone engages your curiosity… Brick- out in paperback on 8 October, £8.99, is easy. People think this of me because calls – and no visitors! I’d spend the The priority activity if you were the laying. Like Winston from HarperCollins Children’s Books. the Paddington books are short, but I day reliving my life, gazing out of the Invisible Man for a day… I’d do Churchill, I find it As told to Rob McGibbon hone them from a much longer text. window with its vista over some eavesdropping. A bit restorative in times P

northern Paris. I’d be hoto of snatched conversation of stress. It sets The event that altered the course of ­happy to go for lunch at can be good for a story – it’s the mind free. your life and character… Replying to an g my favourite fish restau- ha raphs: helped me in the past. advert at 16 for someone interested in The treasured radio. The BBC was setting up a trans- rant – Le Dôme in Mont­

The pet hate that makes item you lost and wk mitter in Reading and wanted someone parnasse. I’d have the your hackles rise... Cold wish you could s boo to look after it. This led to me working lobster salad followed by

calls in the evening. have again… A lit- a tarte fine aux pommes. k

as a BBC cameraman, a job I loved. shutt s, tle toy dog my girl- But after that I’d like to friend Nora gave The crime you would commit knowing be back in the flat, read-

Right: Billy Bunter. Top e right: Ferrero Rocher. me when I joined you could get away with it… There’s ing and writing and rstoc Far right: Paris the RAF at 17. I always a cost to pay for the smallest looking out over Paris. k Next week PS... l Paul Kaye takes us behind the Michael Fassbender takes the title role in a big-screen Macbeth scenes as he guest stars in the new l – in cinemas from Friday. Janet Jackson’s first studio album in series of Doctor Who James Martin shows you how to make his favourite seven years, Unbreakable, is out the same day. And Michael puds l As the apple season arrives, Monty Don on the best tree for you Palin’s The Thirty Years Tour continues tonight in Carlisle l PLUS Britain’s best TV listings guide

86 weekend Daily Mail WEEKEND is published by Associated Newspapers Ltd. Printed by The Polestar Group. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. © Associated Newspapers Limited 2015.

National 26 September