Synopsis
My book review for Financial Times arts writer Jackie Wullschlager's exhaustive biography of the Danish fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen. It's a great book - his life was hardly a fairytale, but rather a dark mix of social climbing, sexual frustration and chronic (oft-imagined) maladies. One thing I retained: At the time, publishers commonly arranged rapid translation of popular books - like those of Andersen - and rushed them to market without any payment to the author; a literary version of today's fast fashion, stealing runway looks and getting them into stores before the creators do.
