Shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction.

Longlisted for the 2018 Stella Prize.

In 1972 Paula Keogh becomes a patient in M Ward, the psychiatric ward of a Canberra hospital. While there, she meets the poet Michael Dransfield. They fall wholly and boldly and ecstatically in love.

Paula discovers a self she thought she had lost, while Michael 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 M Ward is a liminal, purgatorial place – a twilight realm where patients endure the existential pain that is mental illness. Madness and grief challenge Paula and Michael’s luminous dream. Can their love survive?

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

‘A moving distillation of pain and joy, The Green Bell is quite simply one of the most beautifully written and wisest memoirs I have ever read.’ The Sydney Morning Herald

‘A kind of radiance illuminates this beautiful book .’ The Guardian

‘The Green Bell [is] a memoir of remarkable eloquence and quiet candour … as much about love and hope as it is a critique of psychiatry.’ The Age

‘An intense firework of a book.’ Kevin Brophy

‘Keogh’s lyrical writing brings this story to life. Her descriptions of mental illness are unforgettable.’ Readings Monthly