by PAUL LEYSSAC from his own translation of ' The Eagle's Nest', by Bjornson, and two stories by Hans Andersen : The Darning Needle ' and 'It's Perfectly True'
As a boy, Paul Leyssac , actor, author, lecturer, and broadcaster (listeners will remember his talk on Hans Andersen last summer) loved Hans Andersen 's fairy tales. His Danish mother used to read them to him as nobody else could, for she had heard them told by Hans Andersen himself.
Grown to manhood, Leyssac translated many of these stories and fairy tales into French. In Paris he recited them at concerts and ' at homes '. They attracted attention, and his translations were published in 1928. He also made a special English version which he uses in all his readings and lectures.
It is of interest that Leyssac is to read his own translations of two of Hans Andersen 's stories tonight.