The wild swan

Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales are part of every child's heritage, yet their creator has remained to most people a shadowy figure: a poor cobbler's son who lived and died in a little Danish town. How mistaken is this assessment of Andersen's remarkable life and achievement Monica Stirling reveals in this engrossing book, which places him firmly in his wider European setting as a man of letters, inveterate traveller, and friend of kings.