Sunday Times 2
Gone Man Squared launch in London
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Royston Ellis, Jimmy Page (formerly of Led Zeppelin) & Neel Jayantha of Sri Lanka, Road Manager for the launch, in London's Poetry Café
“Gone Man Squared” a book of collected poems by Royston Ellis, a British resident of Sri Lanka for the last 35 years, was launched in England on May 29. The event was held at London’s Poetry Café where Royston Ellis gave a reading. This was his first performance in England since retiring as a performing poet in 1961.
The poems were written between 1959 and 1961 when Royston used to perform them on stage and television to music by Cliff Richard’s Shadows, the embryo-Beatles and Jimmy Page, the guitarist who was later begetter of Led Zeppelin. Royston is renowned today as Britain’s first beat poet and is also author of over 60 novels, biographies and guide books and hundreds of articles on Sri Lanka. This collection of poems is published by Kicks Books of the USA.
Royston gave a 30-minute reading to a standing room only audience that included poets from England and the USA and many Sri Lankans resident in London. Jimmy Page, who has written the introduction to “Gone Man Squared,” also took part.