When Paul Mannion was eight, in 1989, he took his teddy bear Baxter on a bus to town and lost him.

Three months later, Baxter was returned, missing an eyeball and a nose and smelling of cigarettes, and now Paul is immortalising his story in ‘Baxter is Missing’, a book about the bear and his adventures.

Paul said: “It's all about Baxter, from the moment when I lost him, I don’t know what happened at that point in real life. That’s where my imagination comes in, I get to imagine all the things he did and all the places he looked for me.”

Paul Mannion, Baxter and the book (Image: Paul Mannion)

In the book, Baxter journeys through Basingstoke in the eighties to try and reunite with Paul, visiting locations like New Market Square, the Willis Museum, the Haymarket, the ABC cinema and meeting characters along the way.

In real life, Paul was reunited with Baxter, a first-birthday gift, after the bus station contacted his mum to say the bear had been returned, and Paul is putting this idea of the kindness of strangers into the story.

He explained: “The pages in the book represent snippets in my life, and there are some special people, some not with us anymore, they get to feature in the book.

“The characters are all people I know or I embody people I know or have passed on since.”

Paul Mannion, Baxter and the book (Image: Newsquest)

Although Paul moved from Basingstoke to Dublin in 1994, he has fond memories of Basingstoke and has been having ‘a nice trip down memory lane’ looking at old photographs and reminiscing.

Bringing Baxter to life in images is illustrator Lily Skipp, from Popley, who Paul has had the pleasure of sharing what old Basingstoke was like.

He said: “She’s of an age where she didn’t know the old Basingstoke so I get to share some of the stories with her.

“Her grandfather used to work on the buses in Basingstoke and now her grandfather features in the book as one of the characters.”

Many of Baxter’s adventures are inspired by Paul’s life, including one scene where Baxter shouts in the cinema and is told off, inspired by a friend’s brother seeing him in class at school and shouting in excitement, annoying the teacher.

Paul is offering to give away four copies of Baxter is Missing to Gazette readers. Just tell us why you would like to win before March 19!

Find out more and buy the book here: findbaxter.com/