Fairy tale princesses and mysterious castles are just part of the way that historically story tellers have been connected to royalty. In this article some of the most famous story tellers are discussed with their royal patronage and experiences.

Hans Christian Andersen couldn’t believe his luck. In 1854, he was sitting in a carriage en-route to the castle of the King of Bavaria: ‘it seemed like a fairy tale’, he wrote, ‘that I, the poor shoemaker’s son, was flying across the mountains at the side of a king.’ Humble his origins might have been, but Andersen had a knack for picking up high-born connections: the Grand-Duke of Weimar, the Queen of Saxony, the King and Queen of Denmark, the King of Sweden (not to mention literary celebrities like Charles Dickens and Victor Hugo). ‘I have drunk my chocolate with the queen,’ he recorded towards the end of his life, ‘sitting with her and the king at table.’...