{{short description|British playwright and author}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}} {{Use British English|date=May 2013}} {{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see :Template:Infobox writer/doc --> | name = Karoline Leach | image = Karoline Leach.jpg | imagesize = 150px | caption = | pseudonym = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1967|7|20|df=y}} | birth_place = Liverpool, UK | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Writer | nationality = | period = Early 21st century | genre = Biography, stageplays | subject = | movement = | influences = | influenced = | footnotes = }}
'''Karoline Leach''' (born 20 July 1967) is a British playwright and author, best known for her book ''In the Shadow of the Dreamchild'' ({{ISBN|0-7206-1044-3}}), which re-examines the life of Lewis Carroll (pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), the author of ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. This book and her subsequent work on what she terms the "Carroll Myth" have been major sources of upheaval and controversy in recent years and she has produced very polarized responses from Carroll scholars and lay enthusiasts.
Leach was born in Liverpool. She studied acting and worked as both actress and director in British theatre before becoming a writer.
==Theatre work== Her first professional produced work as a writer was an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's ''The Snow Queen'', commissioned by Orchard Theatre Company in 1989.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Karoline Leach {{!}} Theatricalia |url=https://theatricalia.com/person/1900/karoline-leach |access-date=22 August 2023 |website=theatricalia.com}}</ref> "The Mysterious Mr Love" was produced in London's West End in 1997. Under the new title of ''Tryst'' that play opened off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre, on 6 April 2006, and has subsequently been produced in many cities around the world, including Athens, Warsaw, Houston, Los Angeles and Montreal.<ref name="Donnelly">{{cite news|url=https://montrealgazette.com/Entertainment/Bravura+buttoned+down+drama/1388325/story.html|title=Bravura, buttoned-down drama|last=Donnelly|first=Pat|date=14 March 2009|work=Montreal Gazette|publisher=Canwest|accessdate=27 March 2009|archive-date=15 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201215193620/https://montrealgazette.com/Entertainment/Bravura+buttoned+down+drama/1388325/story.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==The Carroll controversy== Leach's theory of a "Carroll Myth" created a furore when first suggested, and continues to divide scholars, though has gained the support of authors such as Carolyn Siger.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} Authors including Morton N. Cohen and Martin Gardner downplayed or dismissed her importance. Cohen, who was also a Dodgson biographer, repudiated Leach's position as being simply a plea for the defence, and, in a 2003 article in the ''Times Literary Supplement'', labelled Leach and her supporters as "revisionists" attempting to rewrite history.<ref>Cohen, Morton N. "When Love was Young", ''Times Literary Supplement'', October 2003</ref>
In 2004, Leach founded the Association for New Lewis Carroll Studies, that aims to promote reassessment of Carroll's life in light of the alleged 'Myth'. Its membership, as of 2010, includes scholars such as Hugues Lebailly, Carolyn Sigler, Sherry L. Ackerman, John Tufail and Cristopher Hollingsworth.<ref>[http://contrariwise.wild-reality.net], wild-reality.net; accessed 13 March 2016.</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://shadowofthedreamchild.wild-reality.net In the Shadow of the Dreamchild] *[http://contrariwise.wild-reality.net Contrariwise], the Association for New Lewis Carroll Studies
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Leach, Karoline}} Category:English dramatists and playwrights Category:1967 births Category:Living people Category:Writers from Liverpool Category:Lewis Carroll Category:English writer stubs