I've been Kindled - and it feels just great!

I'm excited to find out that my novel, Stephen Dearsley's Summer Of Love is now available on Kindle and that the publishers are selling it at a special festive price for a limited period. If you want to order it you will have to go to your own country's Amazon site or the Amazon site that ships to you. It was exciting to see just how far my book has travelled since it was published as a paperback here in the UK at the end of October this year. Now anyone with the splendid Kindle machine can download it instantly for a very small cost.

I love my Kindle and use it constantly. I'm currently reading Marcel Proust's massive 7 volume novel  À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search Of Lost Time) and find it wonderfully easy to transport around wherever I go. I love buying books too of course as they are beautiful objects in their own right but also solid momentos of reads that you want to keep on a special shelf at home.

Also, as far as my novel is concerned, it's been fun signing copies  - not that you need to have my signature  - but it's much more difficult to autograph your Kindle.

Here are links to some of the major Amazon sites where you can buy the Kindle edition. If you do decide to read it, it would be great to hear from you here on my website.

Brazil:

http://www.amazon.com.br/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/192-7302333-0848351?__mk_pt_BR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Stephen%20Dearsley's%20Summer%20Of%20lOVE

Canada:

http://www.amazon.ca/Stephen-Dearsleys-Summer-Love-Colin-ebook/dp/B00HI0KKXC/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388147550&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Stephen+Dearsley%27s+Summer+of+love

France:

http://www.amazon.fr/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/277-2140862-0206023?__mk_fr_FR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Stephen%20Dearsley's%20Summer%20of%20lOVE

Germany:

http://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Stephen%20Dearsley's%20Summer%20Of%20love

India:

http://www.amazon.in/Stephen-Dearsleys-Summer-Love-Colin-ebook/dp/B00HI0KKXC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388145326&sr=8-1&keywords=Stephen+Dearsley%27s+Summer+Of+love


Italy:

http://www.amazon.it/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/276-9907493-9144042?__mk_it_IT=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Stephen%20Dearsley's%20Summer%20Of%20love


Japan:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/377-9761966-0682217?__mk_ja_JP=%E3%82%AB%E3%82%BF%E3%82%AB%E3%83%8A&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Stephen+Dearsley%27s+Summer+Of+Love

Mexico:

http://www.amazon.com.mx/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/189-9030876-5922100?__mk_es_MX=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Stephen%20Dearsley's%20Summer%20Of%20love

Spain:

http://www.amazon.es/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/278-9292365-9412902?__mk_es_ES=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Stephen%20Dearsley's%20Summer%20Of%20love


UK:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stephen-Dearsleys-Summer-Love-Colin-ebook/dp/B00HI0KKXC/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_2_KK11


USA:

http://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Dearsleys-Summer-Love-Colin-ebook/dp/B00HI0KKXC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388145252&sr=8-1&keywords=Stephen+Dearsley%27s+summer+Of+love
http://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Dearsleys-Summer-Love-Colin-ebook/dp/B00HI0KKXC/ref

A thrilling climb up the volcano Mount Etna remembered in my latest published poem

I  haven't been posting on here much over the last week as you my loyal readers will have noticed. I've been trying to finish my new novel before Christmas and, this morning, I came to the end of the third draft on schedule. I've been so busy in fact that I almost forgot that have a new poem, Mount Etna, published today by the online poetry journal Every Day Poets you can read it by following this link:

http://www.everydaypoets.com/mount-etna-by-colin-bell/

The poem was written after an inspiring two weeks  Sicily when, amongst a lot of other adventures, I went to the top of  Europe's biggest and most active volcano, Mount Etna.

It was alarming enough for vertigo-prone me to go in the cable car up to the half-way stage but that was just the beginning.

The final part of the journey was on foot climbing up through the clouds over one of the most unwelcoming landscapes I have ever seen.

It was also one of the most dramatic.

... a thrilling mix of sulfurous steam and gaping holes in the menacing dried lava.

I really felt as if I was treading the top of the world.

 If it wasn't so high, it could've been  the underworld - Dante's Inferno perhaps and an inspiring subject for a poem.

I could certainly feel that the ground was alive beneath my feet as I climbed to the summit and it was humbling and rather exciting to learn that just six months later, in February 2012,  Mount Etna had erupted again. If you haven't been up a volcano before, or even if you have,  please read my poem and see if I conveyed some of the wonder of this dramatic place.

My novel is launched in London at the Phoenix with friends, colleagues and the spirits of Noel Coward and Laurence Olivier.

I was up in London on Tuesday evening for a bit of performing at the Phoenix Theatre in Charing Cross Road - well, anyone who knows me thinks I'm a bit of a show-off so I'm sure you're not surprised to read this.

This theatre opened in 1930 with the premier of Noel Coward's play Private Lives starring Noel himself along with Gertrude Lawrence and the young Laurence Olivier but today it's showing Once - The Musical, billed as 'the musical of the decade'.

Adequate as my song and dance routines are, I wasn't actually appearing in Once. No, I was downstairs.

I was underneath the theatre in the splendidly atmospheric Phoenix Artist Club that many years ago had once been used as the theatre's original dressing rooms and rehearsal studios  - so the space retains some of the spirit of dear Larry, Noel and Gertie. They linger on here especially after a few or even a few more drinks.

I was here for the launch party for my novel Stephen Dearsley's Summer Of Love held by my publishers Ward Wood Publishing who had booked a private space next to the club's excellent bar.

When I arrived, early, with a pile of new copies of the book, the place was deserted but it soon filled up with a great mix including friends from the various stages of my life,  family and Ward Wood colleagues, Adele Ward herself a writer and, the writers Vg Lee, Joe Stein, Sue Guiney, Peter Philips and Patricia Averbach - all friends now and, inspiringly, all surprisingly like-minded citizens of the literary world.  I consider myself doubly lucky to be published by a company that has so many great people on its books. Four of us are planning to appear together for readings - like a rather unconventional rock band on the road. Watch this space for details.

The event soon turned into a party and, against all expectations, I actually enjoyed myself.

My thanks to poet Peter Daniels for taking these photographs of me doing my party-mingling which, that night, was refreshingly free from small-talk.

I also got the chance to meet a number of people who have known for some time but who now, like James Grant,  became virtual friends turned to flesh.

Peter Daniels also took some photographs of me on stage where I read a short section of my novel to a generously receptive audience.

Afterwards I was kept busy signing copies of the book - here with the award-winning American poet  Patricia Averbach....

..and here with my son Adam who also wanted an inscribed copy. At this little corner table I could not only sign books but do a bit of palm-reading too even if no one actually believed my predictions.

Adele Ward filmed part of the reading for which I'm most grateful as I don't sound nearly as bad as I thought I did. The next-door bar joviality much noisier on the video than it was in reality - the atmosphere was informal and intimate considering we were right in the centre of London. Thanks to everyone who came along that night - it was terrific to see you all.



After such a truly enjoyable and memorable evening, I couldn't just go off afterwards to my hotel bed. Luckily London's Chinatown is genuinely a 24 hour experience and the Red Dragon Restaurant in Gerrard Street served a leisurely and very good meal a long time after midnight -  bed was considerably later.

After all the socialising, enjoyable though it was, it was also great, the next morning, taking an almost empty train home from London to Lewes. Trains make great decompression chambers. It's now back to work on the new novel.

My Every Day Poets poem for Yehudi Menuhin is published

Over the weekend, I was going to write about my old friend Yehudi Menuhin but there was a problem with my website  providers and this site was down for over 24 hours. My apologies to everyone who tried to access my site during that time. So I'm going to write that blog today because my Fibonacci poem/elegy for the great violinist was published on Saturday by Every Day Poets and I can now give you the link to read it (and, if you want, vote for it on the page's star system):

http://www.everydaypoets.com/yehudi-menuhin-by-colin-bell/

In my television days, as a producer-director,  I worked with Yehudi Menuhin on a number of programmes including his very last film project, my documentary Menuhin's Children where we filmed him teaching twelve seven year old children the first stages of violin playing once a month for a year. Sadly Yehudi died during the making of this film and when we completed it, it became a tribute to his genius. We had become friends too during these monthly times together and, on the last day that we worked together (in February 1999), he asked if he could accompany me on my walk around the location when I customarily looked for shots that would mark the passing of the seasons. This gentle stroll in Guildford, Surrey (my birthplace) was not just about the beginnings of the new Spring but it was also the last time I was to see him, he died unexpectedly only weeks later in Germany. There was a spirit of calm, relaxation but also melancholy in the air that day which stayed in my memory and became the starting point for the Fibonacci poem that has just been published.

Yehudi Menuhin was a great violinist and a great advocate for peace and toleration through the world and I felt privileged to have known him.  I hope that the poem goes some way towards expressing my gratitude for the time we spent together.

In the spirit of completion, here's a short trailer for my film Menuhin's Children - it was first shown by the BBC and then all over the world: