#hans-christian-andersen

#hans-christian-andersen

how to be brave in the face of that terror-which is a terror we all feel, not just kids. To wit, here I am, at sixty-one, going back to these stories and finding more comfort, more terror, and ever more relevance.

In the mirror I'm wearing enormous golden pantaloons, but only I can see them. Children sit in a rock pool playing mermaids, and in the next room there's a talking pea in a display case, beside a towering stack of mattresses. It's the world of Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), one of the 19th century's most beloved writers. I'm in Odense, on the island of Fyn (sometimes anglicised to Funen) in the south of Denmark,