48pp corrected typescript of an unpublished play entitled 'Leonardo' by John Presland. The first page reads ‘Please return to John Presland, 63 Lancaster Grove NW3’. The file also contains a second copy of Scene I, a 10pp typescript headed ‘Leonardo by Myfanwy Sloane’ [a pen name used by Gladys Bendit in addition to that of John Presland?].
For both, ‘The setting - - - is imaginary, not historical’. It is set ‘in Renaissance Italy in the first half of the sixteenth century’.
The file also contains a handwritten letter to Sir John [Gielgud] offering the play for his use (no date) and a reply from his secretary at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket SW1, 4 September 1963, to John Presland, 4 Marlborough Lodge, Hamilton Terrace, NW8, saying that ‘commercially the possibilities are slight’, but ‘He would like to compliment you on the verse’.