Chiswick Writer Features In Radio Four Play

BBC dramatise Karen Liebreich's book about message in a bottle

The quest by a Chiswick author to find the French writer of a letter found in a bottle washed up on an English beach has been turned into a play and will be broadcast by BBC Radio Four this week.

'The Letter in the Bottle', a book written by Karen Liebreich, has been dramatised as 'A Bottle on the Shore' by John Taylor of The Fiction Factory and will be broadcast on Tuesday, 11th December at 2.15pm. It stars Stella Gonet, (playing the character of Karen), Caroline Loncq and Anton Lesser.

Karen Liebreich pictured with the bottle

On 30 March 2002, a glass Evian bottle shaped like a tear, containing an unsigned love letter to a dead son, two curls of hair and a mystery, washed up on a beach in Kent. The bottle was found by Karen's friend Sioux and as she could not speak French, she asked Karen to translate it.

The finding set off a quest which lasted seven years as Karen attempted to trace the author of the letter and piece together the story behind the death of young Maurice, the 13-year old boy to whom the letter was written before being sealed in the elegant bottle and cast into the sea.

Karen's search involved visits to coastguards, clairvoyants, Tarot card readers and psychologists as well as battles with French officialdom as her journey took her throughout France. The play centres around the story of her search and how it impacted on her life and her immediate family and friends.

'The Letter In A Bottle ' was first published in 2006 by Atlantic Books, with a revised edition in 2010 which has a compelling conclusion to the search. It has also been translated into French and featured on French television and radio. The Telegraph newspaper described it as " haunting and elegantly written."

Karen Liebreich is well known in Chiswick as one of the founders of the Kitchen Garden at Chiswick House, and for her work with Abundance.

She has published five books including 'Fallen Order', which is on the subject of paedophile priests.


http://www.karenliebreich.com/

December 8, 2012