Karen Mcleod

Karen McLeod is author of the Betty Trask prize-winning novel, 'In Search of the Missing Eyelash'. Her memoir 'Lifting Off' is about being a creative growing up in suburban London, leaving for art college, then losing her sense of self after joining British Airways as cabin crew. Starting in 1990s, on her first flight she was advised not to be out as gay. Full of vertiginous loops and extreme globe-trotting, this is the story of how she went into freefall, and how she eventually came in to land.

It's about the power of creativity and what can get lost if we're not able to be ourselves.

Creator of comedy character Barbara Brownskirt "the worst living lesbian poet alive and performing today", she tours around the UK at leading theatres and comedy venues. As if that isn’t enough, she is also writer in residence at The Bookseller Crow bookshop in Crystal Palace and a tutor of creative writing.