Charles Perrault was born in Paris in 1628, the fifth son of wealthy parents. He was sent to a prestigious school and aged twenty-three, after a fleeting attendance at the University of Orléans, became a lawyer. Abandoning this career, he became an author and in doing so created the genre of the fairy tale, based on existing European folk tales. He is most famous for ‘Cinderella’, ‘Puss in Boots’ and ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, and his versions influenced the Brothers Grimm 200 years later. He was a key player in the French literary scene of the seventeenth century, and died in 1703.