'Big questions lie at the heart of The Green Bell. What is love? Madness? Poetry? Are there boundaries? The focus is on Paula Keogh’s intense relationship with poet Michael Dransfield when they meet in M Ward, the psychiatric ward of Canberra Community Hospital, in 1972.
Keogh was admitted after a breakdown following the death of her best friend Julianne, but with Dransfield’s arrival in M Ward their story takes flight. ‘‘His eyes are teasing’’ as he smiles at her. They bond with wordplay and poetry and find refuge nearby under the green bell of a willow by the shores of Lake Burley Griffin.' (Introduction)