Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark on April 2nd 1805 to a shoemaker and a washerwoman. His father cultivated the young Andersen’s artistic leanings with frequent trips to the local playhouse and by crafting a wooden theatre for him which the young Andersen reputedly used to perform entire Shakespeare plays from memory.

When he was 11 his father died and he was sent out to work in a cigarette factory. At 14 he became an actor with the Royal Theatre mostly on account of his beautiful soprano voice, which when it broke lost him the position and he was subsidised through Grammar School and University by the Theatre’s Director Jonas Collins. He found this a painful time as he was older than the other students and again considered strange.
His writing legacy includes Thumbelina, The Snow Queen, The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor’s New Clothes and The Princess and the Pea which are still widely read.