While marmalade isn't really a native British food (it's generally too cool to grow oranges, unfortunately), it's been enthusiastically adopted from southern Spain and Portugal in much the same way that sherry (Jerez) and port (Porto) have been. Indeed, marmalade is ubiquitous in British homes and hostelries as part of that wonderful creation "the full English breakfast" (from which, incidentally, we get the expression The Full Monty, after Viscount Montgomery of Alamein who, reputedly, was a devotee of such breakfasts). [At least, this is the origin of the expression, as far as I know – but see this article for a fuller discussion].
There are three rival centers of marmalade making in Britain, that I can think of. One, the best known and, by the way, origin of the best cake in the entire world: Dundee in Scotland. The other two are our two great centers of learning, and my two alma maters: Oxford (Frank Cooper's) and Cambridge (Chivers). Indeed in my second year at Oxford, I lived directly above the Cooper's store on the High Street. I love their thick-cut "Oxford" marmalade which, fortunately, I can actually buy here in the U.S.
But the best marmalade of all, bar none, is my own mother's. And I'm not just saying that. She really knows how to make marmalade and goes to the ends of the earth (well, the ends of Kent, anyway) to find Seville oranges, the proper marmalade oranges (because of their high pectin content and somewhat bitter taste). She is fond of bringing me pots of marmalade on her visits here. Unfortunately, she sometimes forgets that marmalade is a gel, and therefore not permitted in hand luggage. Several pots of scrumptious marmalade have found their way, presumably, to the security officers' breakfasts.
Exactly how Paddington Bear had acquired a taste for marmalade "in darkest Peru" is something of a mystery, although I do recall that there was a semi-plausible explanation. Presumably, darkest Peru is the part of the country through which the Amazon flows. The rest of Peru is, I imagine, rather light and airy, especially up in the Andes around places like Cuzco. My daughter Miranda is currently in Peru for a year on a Fogarty scholarship, and has actually been to Iquitos on the Amazon (indeed she has rafted for three days in the annual Amazon river rafting race), I'll have to ask her if she found plenty of marmalade while she was there.
I expect the real explanation has more to do with Bond's fondness (fetish?) for citrus fruits. One of his other characters is the hilariously funny Monsieur Pamplemousse, a Clouseau-like character who has retired from the Sûreté and, with his faithful dog Pommes Frites, investigates the gastronomic delights of France as a reviewer for le Guide. I'm a big fan of M. Pamplemousse.
Stands the church clock at a quarter past?
And is there marmalade still for breakfast?
[with apologies to Rupert Brooke]
I can attest that from darkest Peru, the marmalade is not good. It is overly sweet and generally pineapple or strawberry. Rarely orange. Perhaps things have changed since the days of Paddington!
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