‘A courageous account of madness. Paula Keogh has brilliantly captured its creative exhilaration, illumination, grief and loss. She takes us on a deeply human search for integrity and meaning.’ Kate Richards, author of Madness: A Memoir

In Canberra, 1972, Paula Keogh and Michael Dransfield meet in the psychiatric ward of the Canberra Hospital and instantly fall in love. Michael is being treated for a drug addiction; Paula is delusional and grief-stricken.

Paula recovers a self that she thought was lost, while Michael, a radical poet, is inspired to write the poems that become The Second Month of Spring. Together, they plan for ‘a wedding, marriage, kids – the whole trip’. But outside the hospital, madness and grief challenge their luminous dream. Can their love survive?

The Green Bell is a lyrical and profoundly moving memoir about love and madness. Ultimately, it reveals itself to be a hymn to life. A requiem for lost friends. A coming of age story that takes a lifetime.

‘In 1972, Paula Keogh fell in love with Michael Dransfield, the most gifted poet of his generation. Her portrait of him – and the brief period they spent together – recaptures that time with remarkable freshness and insight.’

Rodney Hall