Contrary to the abiding image of Danny Kaye regaling a crowd of well-scrubbed peasant children with the tales of ‘Thumbelina’ and ‘The Ugly Duckling’, Hans Christian Andersen never sought the company of children. Indeed, when, towards the end of his life, the Danish public proposed to erect a statue of him in Copenhagen, he so loathed the original sketch, which featured a child resting his head on his thigh, that it was withdrawn in favour of one showing the writer alone.

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