Just around the corner from the main entrance to a Travelodge hotel in Canterbury is a modest plaque dedicated to the creator of one of the most famous children’s characters in British history. Because it was here Mary Tourtel woke up on her final day on Earth – the woman who created Rupert Bear. In March 1948, she was walking along the nearby High Street when she collapsed. Rushed to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, she would die a week later, on March 15. She had suffered from a brain tumour. It was perhaps somehow fitting that a woman who had been a nomad during her career – jetting around…
