Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was born in Odense, Denmark, the son of a shoemaker and a washerwoman. He left home for Copenhagen at the age of fourteen and immediately made an impression on the capital's artistic community with his precocious literary talent. He gained sponsorship from the Danish elite and received an education and the opportunity to travel widely throughout Europe. He became one of world literature's most beloved children's authors, celebrated in his lifetime and ever after, and lending his name to the world's most prestigious children's literature prize. As well as his famous fairy stories he wrote novels, novellas, plays, travelogues, autobiographies and verse for readers of all ages. <p/>Paul Binding is a British literary critic, novelist, and renowned expert in Scandinavian literature. As well as translating Andersen's work, he is the author of an acclaimed biography, Hans Christian Andersen: European Witness.
