In The Red Shoes, a peasant girl named Karen is adopted by a rich old lady and grows up vain and spoiled. She is so enamored of a new pair of red shoes that she wears them to church in spite of a warning to only wear black shoes there. She soon learns that ignoring that warning was a bad idea: a mysterious old soldier at the church charms the red shoes with a tap of his hand. This cautionary tale has been adapted for various media including film.
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Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) was born in Odense, Denmark, the son of a poor shoemaker and a washerwoman. As a young teenager, he became quite well known in Odense as a reciter of drama and as a singer. When he was fourteen, he set off for the capital, Copenhagen, determined to become a national success on the stage. He failed miserably, but made some influential friends in the capital who got him into school to remedy his lack of proper education. In 1829 his first book was published. After that, books came out at regular intervals. His stories began to be translated into English as early as 1846. Since then, numerous editions, and more recently Hollywood songs and Disney cartoons, have helped to ensure the continuing popularity of the stories in the English-speaking world.
Rupert Degas is an award-winning narrator and a 2022 recipient of the AudioFile Golden Voice Award. He has won numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards, has recorded the works of Peter Carey, Haruki Murakami, Andy McNab, Darren Shan, and Derek Landy, among others. He has also recorded over fifty radio productions including The Gemini Apes, The Glittering Prizes, This Sceptered Isle, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He has appeared on film and television in Dead Romantic, EastEnders, Waiting for God, Passport to Murder, Over Here, Fatherland, The Cappuccino Years, Exorcist: The Beginning, Love Soup and Shoot the Messenger. He has also lent his voice to numerous animated films and series including Mr. Bean, Bob the Builder, Robotboy, and The Amazing World of Gumball. Along with several stints in Newsrevue at the Canal Café Theatre and in Edinburgh, he has appeared on the London stage in The Boys Next Door, Are We There Yet?, Becket, Stones in His Pockets, and Patrick Barlow’s adaptation of The 39 Steps. He lives in Sydney, Australia.