This virtual exhibition was created to accompany a display in the Library's galleries between 20 May and 2 October 2005. The following events took place during that period.
Wednesday 15 June 2005, 18.30-20.00
Kristian Jensen
Hans Christian Andersen: the Art of Being Excluded
in the Conference Centre
In
this talk exhibition curator Kristian Jensen explores the favourite
Romantic themes of rejection and exclusion in Andersen's work as
a reflection of the writer's own life and his perception of himself
as an outsider.
Kristian Jensen is Head of Early Printed Collections
at the British Library, and co-curator of the Library's 'Hans Christian
Andersen' exhibition.
Price £6.00 (concessions £4.00)
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Thursday 16 June 2005, 18.15-18.45
Kristian Jensen
Self Portraits?
in the Pearson Gallery
Price £3.00
Please note this event is not seated
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Monday 20 June 2005, 18.30-20.00
Sandi Toksvig and Julia Eccleshare
Chaired by Peter Florence
Classic Book Discussion: Hans Christian Andersen Fairytales
in the Conference Centre
The Snow Queen, The Nightingale, The Ugly Ducking, The Steadfast
Tin Soldier and The Little Mermaid come under the
spotlight. While they appear to have the quality of stories rooted
in centuries of peasant tradition, Andersen was in fact inventing
something new - the literary fairy story - drawn from his own life
and imagination.
There will be an opportunity to put your questions to the panel.
Peter Florence is Director of The Orange Word.
Sandi Toksvig is an author, journalist and broadcaster,
and is a Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Ambassador
Julia Eccleshare is an author and Children's Book
Editor of The Guardian .
Price £6.00 (concessions £4.00)
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Monday 27 June 2005, 18.30-19.40
Anna Carteret and Tim Heath
The Little Match Girl: a Musical Story
in the Conference Centre
This musical version of Andersen's story, with enchanting and witty
songs and a pair of singing toys, will move and delight an audience
of all ages - both the young and the young at heart!
Adapted and directed by Tim Heath and narrated by Anna Carteret.
Anna Carteret is well known for her appearances in Peak Practice,
Juliet Bravo and The Pallisers. Her leading roles for the National
Theatre, in the West End and on Broadway include an acclaimed Mrs
Cheveley in An Ideal Husband.
Tim Heath returns to perform at the British
Library where his past popular musical productions have included
Noel Coward's Not Yet The Dodo and Oscar Wilde's The
Picture of Dorian Gray.
Price £6.00 (concessions £4.00)
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Tuesday 28 June 2005, 18.30-20.00
Penelope Lively, Julia Eccleshare and Francis Spufford
A Fine Line: Writing for Children and Adults
in the Conference Centre
From the fairytales of Andersen to the Harry Potter phenomenon,
the panel will discuss authors whose works are read by both adults
and children. Does the writing differ from work aimed at one or
the other?
Penelope Lively is an award-winning author of
books for adults and young people.
Julia Eccleshare is an author and Children's Book
Editor of The Guardian.
Francis Spufford is the award-winning author
of The Child that Books Built, A Life in Reading and
Backroom Boys.
Price £6.00 (concessions £4.00)
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Tuesday 5 July 2005, 18.30-20.00
Neil Philip
It's me the story is about: Hans Christian Andersen and the Fairytale
in the Conference Centre
Unlike
traditional storytellers, Andersen used the fairy tale to encode
his own life whether the story is ostensibly about a snowman, a
shirt collar, or a philosopher whose cynical shadow takes on a life
of its own. Neil Phillip also explores Andersen's debt to the Danish
folktale, compare him with other fairy-tale writers and discuss
his influence on authors such as Dickens, Oscar Wilde, and Vladimir
Nabokov.
Neil Philip is a writer and folklorist with a
particular interest in mythology and storytelling. He has edited
more than a dozen anthologies and books for children, including
The Penguin Book of English Folktales.
Wednesday 6 July 2005, 18.30-20.00
Sandi Toksvig
A Danegeld? - Our Debt to a Great Dane
in the Conference Centre
Sandi Toksvig has strong connections with Hans Christian Andersen
- her great aunt published a definitive biography of him and his
stories were among the first Sandi read as child. No stranger to
controversy, Sandi will talk this evening about her own trials and
triumphs of storytelling for publication and for after- dinner;
for adults and for children.
Sandi Toksvig became a household name after appearing
on children's games shows and Call My Bluff . A life-long
traveller, she is now guest presenter on BBC Radio 4's Excess
Baggage. She has published many children's books as well as
two adult novels
Tuesday 12 July 2005, 18.30- 20.00
Paul Binding
Hans Christian Andersen: the Gay Imagination
in the Conference Centre
Paul
Binding argues that Andersen's sexuality is not merely reflected
in his art but constitutes one of its most recurrent and dominant
themes. This talk will place him in the company of other major writers
who coped with gay desire and its accommodation in a largely unsympathetic
or hostile society.
Paul Binding is a novelist, critic, cultural
historian and poet with a particular interest in the Nordic countries
where he has spent much time and about which he writes frequently
for newspapers and journals. His concern for the relationship between
gay sexuality and the creative arts led to his close involvement
with the Gay Men's Press.
Price £6.00 (concessions £4.00)
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Wednesday 20 July 2005, 18.30
Running time 119 minutes
The Young Andersen (Unge Andersen)
Film in Danish with English subtitles
Director Rumle Hammerich
in the Conference Centre
A
powerful modern film narrative set in a historical framework, about
the crucial encounter between vulnerable 18-year-old Hans Christian
Andersen, who rates himself so highly, and Mr Meisling, the cynical
school principal: an encounter that fundamentally transforms the
young man's life.
Rated PG - not suitable for young children.
Rumle Hammerich
Born 1954, Denmark, Hammerich
studied film in the US and later at the National Film School
of Denmark. He has directed several TV dramas and series in Sweden
and Denmark. Unge Andersen is his third feature film.
Price: £4.00 (concessions £2.50)
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Thursday 21 July 2005, 18.15-18.45
Morna Daniels
Andersen and the Theatre
in the Pearson Gallery
Price £3.00
Please note this event is not seated
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Tuesday 26 July, 2005, 18.30-20.00
Jonathan Rée
Søren Kierkegaard and the Emperor's Other Clothes
in the Conference Centre
The
only Danish writer whose fame rivals that of Hans Christian Andersen
is Søren Kierkegaard. They were well known to each other,
though their relations were not particularly cordial. Yet Kierkegaard's
use of humour, irony and fabulation to expose the vanity of human
wishes brings him rather closer to Andersen than one might expect.
Jonathan Rée is a writer and philosopher
and co-editor of The Kierkegaard Reader.
Price £6.00 (concessions £4.00)
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Monday 8 August 2005, 18.30-19.45
Marina Warner
Eyes like Carbuncles: the Spell of Fairytale Now
in the Conference Centre
followed by a reception
Marina
Warner will consider how Andersen's stories illuminate recent developments
of 'crossover' fairytale fiction and popular entertainment. With
special emphasis on the border between other, spirit worlds and
this world, between the fantastic and the real, the animate and
inanimate, she will ask why writers increasingly turn to this way
of storytelling.
Marina Warner is a prize-winning novelist and
mythographer.
Price £6.00 (concessions £4.00)
Free to Hans Christian Andersen Conference attendees (see
below)
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Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875); a celebration and
reappraisal
A Conference
Monday 8 - Wednesday 10 August 2005
in the Conference Centre
Organised by the British Library in association with the University
of Newcastle and the Institute of English Studies at the University
of London.
Specialists from around the world explore this enigmatic and contradictory
character, offering valuable background and new perspectives on
Andersen's life and work.
Speakers include Marina Warner
novelist, mythographer and critic; Maria Tatar
Harvard College Professor and John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic
Languages and Literatures; Johan de Mylius Director
of the Hans Christian Andersen Research Centre in Copenhagen; Ruth
Bottigheimer State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Who should attend? Academics, teachers, librarians
and other professionals involved in introducing Andersen to the
public.
Price Register before 7 July 2005 - £50.00
(£25.00 concessions); £60.00
(£30.00 concessions) after that date. Price includes morning
and afternoon refreshments.
To book : Joanne Grubb at the Institute for English
Studies
Tel: +44 (0)20 7862 8675
Email: ies@sas.ac.uk
www.sas.ac.uk/ies/hca/
Wednesday 14 September 2005, 18.15-18.45
Elizabeth James
Andersen and Charles Dickens
in the Pearson Gallery
Price £3.00
Please note this event is not seated
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Wednesday 21 September 2005, 18.30-20.00
Michael Morpurgo
Stories? Who needs them? Andersen to Wilde to Morpurgo
in the Conference Centre
Michael believes that stories enable us to discover that we're
not alone in the world. They allow us to travel to places we've
never been, meet people we've never met, be someone we've never
been. And all the while, as we go on these great adventures, our
horizons widen and we live more deeply, if not necessarily more
comfortably.
Michael Morpurgo was Children's Laureate from
2003 to 2005. He has had a lifetime of involvement with children,
as a writer of some 60 books, as a teacher, as a father and grandfather
and as the founder with his wife of 'Farms for City Children'.
Price £6.00 (concessions £4.00)
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Tuesday 27 September 2005, 18.30-20.00
Ian Beck
Illustrating Andersen
in the Conference Centre
Ian's
talk will focus on the creation of his recent picture book The
Little Mermaid freely adapted from the Hans Andersen original. It
will illustrate the process from beginning to end - from rough
workings, visuals, pictures that went wrong, why certain decisions
are made regarding text and pictures, to the design and printing
process. He will also talk about how the intended audience and their
expectations of story outcomes/ Disney etc.
Ian Beck is a popular illustrator of children's
books and his work appears frequently in magazines and advertisements.
He was commissioned to produce an illustration for the British Library/Folio
Society's Complete Stories: Hans Christian Andersen . His
own version of The Little Mermaid will be published in
the autumn by Random House.
Price £6.00 (concessions £4.00)
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Wednesday 28 September 2005, 18.15-18.45
Barbara Hawes
From Ugly Duckling to Swan
in the Pearson Gallery
Price £3.00
Please note this event is not seated
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