Teddy Edward was one of the most travelled teddy bears in the world. There were 19 books and even a TV series (with a great tune – music only below)
In my possession is ‘Teddy Edward’s Winter Holiday’ and I am bound to agree with Enid Blyton: she apparently said that “Teddy Edward seemed to do all the things that every child would want their own teddy bears to do.”
Sadly, Stratton Toys Ltd which held the copyright for ‘Jasmine, the rabbit’ is listed as ‘dissolved’. The character seems to survive in Jasmine the Rabbit in one of the Hedgehog universes. The TV-shows have been wiped, too, so only the books survive.
meeting Chuffy (a very kind and helpful bird) 
visiting Mr and Mrs Stoat 
wandering through the snow 
cover
Patrick Matthews (read more about him here – he did lead an interesting life!) had worked with Cecil Beaton on a photographic project in his garden and took a photograph of Cecil Beaton’s cat sitting in a bed of nettles. Enlarged and framed they hung it in their then three-year old daughter Sarah’s room. This gave his wife Mollie the idea of photographing some of Sarah’s toy animals and to write simple stories about Teddy Edward and his friends.
The morning of the first ski lessons 
Snowy Toes gives instructions 
Not going that well… 
They’ve had enough for one day…
Patrick and Mollie Matthews took ‘action’ photographs but tried to keep to natural poses and in situations children would understand, and they purposely never dressed him up, nor his friends.
Building snowmen – called Fee, Fi, Fo and Fum 
A proud achievement 
Chuffy tells Snowy Toes that there’ll be a ski race to which all are invited 
Chuffy giving Teddy Edward helpful skiing tips
The race is on.. 
Snowy Toes showing off his skills 
but Teddy Edwards wins 
…by a very small margin
In 1996, the actual Teddy Bear sold at auction at Christies for £34,000, so clearly he is well remembered and much loved.
Just superb 🙂 I don’t remember this exactly but some of the character names certainly ring a bell. I can only imagine the time and effort it must have taken to set up all those wonderful scenes, but I bet they had a lot of fun, and the results are perfect. Good too that they didn’t dress up the characters, and left them in their natural state. Thanks for posting.
I had this book as a child …. quite magical & poignant photographs…. would quite like a little Jasmine rabbit, or the bushbaby, whatever its name was…. Thanks for all the background research Wibi !
I was telling my husband about Teddy Edward on the way back from the shop in our little mountain village. A large flock of choughs was flying about just above our heads. A quick question to google and thank you for posting about a favourite book… when I was 6.
Thank you for your lovely comment! 😊