Uri’s new book Ella is mentioned in several places
20th June 1997
Uri Geller: using his extraordinary experiences to write a thriller
Through a bog for Swampy
Nicolette Jones reports on a first book by the eco-activist, and on novels by a spoon-bender
Bill Massey at Headline has bought world rights direct, for a ” Healthy five-figure advance”, in two thrillers by Uri Geller. The first, Ella, to be published in March 1998, is about a 14 year old girl who discovers she has psychic powers, and is “clearly based on Geller’s own extraordinary experiences”.
Geller novel for Headline
12th December 1997
Hardback previews
including Dillons starred choice
Edited by Maris Ross.
Ella Uri Geller Headline £16.99
Readers were attracted to the espionage fiction of Fleming, Maugham and Green because the authors had been connected with the security services. So Uri Geller writes a debut novel about a teenager with telekinetic powers. If he’s the real thing, as many believe, does this mean we shall have shafts of occult knowledge denied to the non-spoon-bending Stephen King? Actually, King is the perfect analogy here, rather than the more stylish writers mentioned earlier, not least for the fact that the plot of Ella is clearly a prime King territory. Wisely Geller has opted for the absolutely straightforward style of the genre’s biggest earner-of-advances. We have the bullied teenager Ella, suddenly nursing her ability to move objects without touching them (shades of King’s Carrie, of course). But the final narrative twists by which she decides between good or evil usage of her powers are a novel spinon King’s concept, and elements of exorcism are a mixed into the brew. The pennyplain style builds up a satisfying head of steam, and success for the book seems assured – Geller is a great self marketer. Sceptical booksellers should lie back and think of the ringing tills this one will produce.
“Uri Geller was the last person I expected to turn into a first-rate novelist. Yet that is exactly what he has done. Ella has a sharpness of observation and insight into character that reveal the true novelist. It is also humorous, well written, and a tremendously dramatic – so much so that I read it straight through in two long sittings. Of course, we would expect a book by Geller to be about someone with psychic powers; but in Ella he has created a person totally unlike himself – a girl whobegins as a psychic and ends as a religious visionary. Yet in spite of its ‘spiritual’ theme, the book has tremendous raw vitality, and a high spirited physical – and sexual realism. It also has wit: one parody of a female journalist who writes for weekend supplements reaches a level of brilliance. It is the most exhilarating novel Ihave read in years.”
Colin Wilson
The Daily Telegraph
Saturday 27 December 1997
All the way from Geller to Heller
1998: Nicolette Jones suggests some titles to watch for; and below, three best selling authors disclose their plans.
Uri Geller publishes his first thriller in March: Ella Headline, the story of a 14-year-old girl who discovers she has psychic powers – getting into the mind of a female heroine should be easier for Geller than for most.
Star ratings – March
The Bookseller’s monthly selection of the best original titles in hardback and paperback.
Uri Geller
Ella
Headline, paper 12th £9.99,
0747276234
The famous psichic’s first novel, the story of a young girl with paranormal powers. James Herbert calls it “shocking, exciting, thought-provoking”. Lots of publicity.
31st July 1997
The Guardian
The Loafer
Mad-eyed magician Uri Geller is to publish a novel. Headline has paid what is coyly described as a “five-figure sum” for this opus about a 14-year-old girl who discovers she has psychic powers and is thus drawn into the terrifying world of the paranormal. The book arrived, presumably amidst ectoplasmic fluttering in invisible dimensions, on the desk of editor Bill Massey, at which very moment a disembodied voice claiming to be Mr Geller himself rang up on the telephone. Coincidence or hocus-pocus? The Loafer is keeping a keen eye on his cutlery drawer.
8th March 1998
The Evening Press
Ella by Uri Geller (Headline Feature, £16.99)
Martin Lacy
ELLA Wallis is a more-than-average unhappyteenager. Her father is a religious bigot too handy with his fists; her French mother has several skeletons in the cupboard – the cupboard where she keeps the gin that blots out the terrorsof her life.
Timid, backward Ella has few friends and no life of her own. But when she is picked on by a sadistic schoolteacher, strange things start to happen. Ella’s books start to fly around the room untouched by human hand and the Christmas nativity scene bursts into flames.
Ella is sent home and the incident hushed up – until her lecherous uncle, the leader of the local born-again Christians, insists on carrying out an exorcism. When it goeshorribly wrong, a local journalist picks up the story and Ella and her dysfunctional family are catapulted into the national spotlight.
Ella is terrified by the attention and the rows around her as her money-grabbing philandering father, an oily publicity agent and an earnest psychic investigator who claimshe is Ella’s ‘enabler’, squabble about her future.
Ella’s behaviour becomes more and more bizarre as the world is gripped by Ella-mania.
Uri Geller has made his name and fortune by a series of happenings that have baffled the public – starting clocks, spoonbending and the like. Opinion (whatever the dust jacket claims) remains divided: has he genuine paranormal powers or is he simply a very talented stage magician? I can’t make up my mind on that but I am convinced that Geller is a fine writer. This is an excellent first novel, gripping and compulsive with finely crafted characters and a twisting, unpredictable plot.
Geller’s decision not to sensationalise the story but relate Ella’s weird existence in a matter-of-fact way enhances the story, which makes telling points about human greed and susceptibility, while compelling the reader to keep on turning the page. A splendid, well-written and thoroughly enjoyable novel.
Competition
We have five copies of Ella to give away. To enter our competition, please answer the following question: What nationality is Ella’s mother? Entries, please, to Robert Beaumont, the Ella competition, the Evening Press, 76-86 Walmgate, YorkY01 1YN.
28th Feb 1998
Liverpool Echo
New mysteries from Uri Geller
Books
by Felicity Newson
Ella by Uri Geller (Headline, £16.99)
Bend your mind as the man better known for twisting metal makes his first sortie into fiction. As you might imagine, Uri Geller has concocted a tale in which many of his psychic preoccupations have prominence.
The central character is Ella Wallis, 14, bullied at school and misunderstood by her family – the ideal channel for some paranormal forces. Her gifts become apparent when objects within her force field start to mysteriously move.
But her poltergeist activities are only the starting point for an extraordinary array of abilities which threaten to turn her life upside down.
Friday 13th March 1998
People
Geller does it again
Uri Geller is at it again. Not content with playing havoc with the lifts at Headline, he’s now broken Jeremy Robson’s glasses. The publisher, who first published Geller back in 1973 with My Story, met the chirpy Israeli recently to discuss his Little Book of Mind-Power which Robson is to publish shortly.
Just as the deal was closed the metal on Robson’s glasses sheared and they landed on the floor in two halves, “And Uri wasn’t even touching them!” Publicity Manager Charlotte Bush tells me.
21st March 1988
The Northern Echo (Darlington)
Mind-bending Geller
Ella by Uri Geller (Headline, £16.99)
GELLER’S tale of a 14-year-old Bristol girl with God-like paranormal power is more than the normal psychic thriller. It not only covers familiar territory with miracle cures and eerie, unexplained happenings, but goes a step beyond to pose questions such as to whether the world would ever accept another Christ-like figure. It’s interesting that Ella has her very own Judas who is her greatest disciple, and betrayal is always around the corner. Geller won’t make you gasp, but hewill make you wonder.
****
29th March 1998
The Express
BOOK SCENE
ELLA. A PSYCHIC
THRILLER
By Uri Geller
(Headline Feature, £9.99)
WHEN shy and dim-witted Ella Wallis starts to display paranormal abilities with the onset of puberty, her gruesome family attempt amateur exorcism, and then exploitation.
But it is the spiritual greed of Ella’s mentor, Peter Guntarson, a playboy torn between respectable scientific research and sensational journalism, whichleads Ella into the global celebritydom which ultimately destroys them both.
We are obviously meant to swallow the paranormal elements as plausible.
And because it’s fiction they slip down easily but leave a nasty taste whenit becomes apparent that Geller himself has missed the moral of his own fable.
BILL SAUNDERS
3rd April 1998
The Telegraph
Uri’s first book is memorable read
Ella by Uri Geller (Headline, £9.99)
YOU will remember this book long after reading it. For Ella, described as a ‘psychic thriller’ has a meaning far beyond the confines of the pages.
Geller takes more than his first step – rather a gigantic leap – into fiction and continually surprises the reader.
The story tells of Bristol-born Ella, a teenager, who is hurt at home by her father, bullied at school, and withdraws into her own world, possibly for comfort and consolation.
She develops bulimia, and continues to lose weight.
However, she has powers, special powers that change her life and those around her.
The book bends and twists far more than Uri’s spoons and involved detail and action means each paragraph is not one to skip over lightly. One wants to savour every detail.
It is superbly written and puts many other books behind in the race for a winning read that does not just end when you reach the last page.
It is a brilliant book – enthralling, exciting, rather like a vivid dream when one does not know that it was an inner vision until waking.
And Ella has plenty of inner visions. ‘The Ella Effect’ is written in the story, which appears similar to ‘The Geller Effect’ a book written in reality about Uri. He dedicates Ella “to all sick children around the world. May- this story come true soon”. Part of the proceeds will goto two hospitals for children in Bristol and London. GL
27th March 1998
Kilmarnock Standard
Ayrshire Weekly News &
Irvine Valley News
TOP TEN BOOKS
1 Armadillo – William Boyd
2 Israel – a History – Martin Gilbert
3 Ella – Uri Geller
4 Human Croquet – Kate Atkinson
5 Rosie – Lesley Pearse
6 Discovering Galloway – Innes McLeod
7 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia – Sandy Mulloy
8 Scottish Country Recipes
9 Crash – Nicholas Faith
10 The Nostradamus Code – David Ovason
Courtesy of James Thin, Sandgate, Ayr
27th March 1998
The Journal (Newcastle)
Emotional thriller blows your mind
Uri Geller, the world’s most famous spoon bender and a man of many parts, has turned his hand to writing novels. PETER DUNDY reviews Ella.
THINK of Uri Geller and you will automatically think of bending spoons and broken watches being made to work – all on television.
But that’s not the half of it. For the charismatic Israeli is nothing if not versatile.
He has, among other things worked for the world’s greatest set of spooks, the CIA, using Mindpower to wipe clean the files of the KGB and attending nuclear peace talks to bombard delegates with positive thought waves.
And now it can be told because for decades this aspect of the use of paranormal powers was clearly considered too controversial to discuss.
Less controversial but no less compelling were his abilities to detect oil,precious metals and even a lost submarine – all of which has helped to make him a multi-millionaire.
In a way it seems a little tame to wheel on yet another achievement but UriGeller has written a novel – and, yes, it’s a mind-blowing emotional thrillerabout the paranormal.
A rest, perhaps, from penning such practical tomes as Change Your Life In One Day or Uri Geller’s Mindpower Kit.
That said, the book has a generous dedication, both in spirit and substance: “To all sick children round the world”.
The story is of a typically unhappy teenager, bullied at school, misunderstood by her family. But she has paranormal powers.
She does not know how she moves things without touching them, or even that she does it at all. But she is aware that this and many other great gifts can be used for good or evil.
The tale becomes quite terrifying, for Geller proves a master of the medium. His insight is deep, his observations sharp, his presentation of the right sort of detail compelling.
Nobody could say this was a boring book.
It contains many mysteries, not the least of which is why Uri Geller, if hecould drive the computers of the KGB round the mechanical bend and find oil and precious metal, is not still employed to this end.
Perhaps, at last, he has found something he really enjoys doing.
Ella by Uri Geller (Headline, £16.99)
26th March 1998
North Devon Journal, Bideford & Torridge
Cursed with incredible powers
This week’s top tens
ONCE famed for bending spoons, Uri Geller has now become a successful novelist. Ella is the story of a young girl blessed – or cursed – with incredible mystical powers.
Fourteen-year-old Ella Wallis is a typical unhappy teenager. Bullied at school, misunderstood by her family, she just wants to be accepted. But Ella has one thing most teenagers don’t have: paranormal powers.
Ella doesn’t know how she moves things about without touching them, or eventhat she’s doing it, but she’s about to discover that this is only the beginning of her extraordinary gifts – gifts that can be used for good or evil.
In this remarkable novel, Uri Geller has combined a powerful story-telling talent with a life-time of unique psychic experiences to explore the hidden powers of the mind – and the terrifying consequences of unleashing them.
For a chance to win a copy of Ella by Uri Geller (Headline, £9.99), courtesy of the Barnstaple Bookshop, simply answer the following question: What makes Ella different from other teenagers?
Answers to: Ella Competition, North Devon Journal. 96 High Street, Barnstaple, EX31 1HT.
Entries close April 2 and the winner will be the first correct entry out of the hat.
27th March 1998
Rugby Evening Telegraph
Mind game
Ella by Uri Geller (Headline, £9.99)
SPOON-BENDER Uri Geller offers a psychic thriller about a young girl who can do much more than twist cutlery out of shape.
Ella can do amazing things but she is one mixed-up teenager. Her backgroundcould keep a team of head-shrinkers busy for years – even her best friend seems off his rocker.
A weird tale of a youngster with awesome mental powers who cannot seem to make up her own mind about anything.
Marion McMullen
May 1998
Unusual power not always a blessing
BOOK REVIEW: Ella, by Uri Geller
Ella is the story of a young girl blessed, or rather cursed, with extraordinary powers. Uri Geller, the author, combines a lifetime of psychicexperiences with a skill for writing.
Ella comes from a simple family. However, when her religious father finds out that his ‘stupid’ girl has enough Mindpower to levitate and teleport, he calls his brother, a priest, to try and exorcise her.
The priest writes of the incident in a church booklet and the story is picked up by local reporter Monty Bell.
Monty sells his story to the Daily Post which sets psychic investigator Peter Guntarson on the story that could change the Earth.
Peter and Ella become close friends and set out to prove Ella’s power to the world. They unite the world in prayer and prove that it can heal cancer and paralysis.
Her father’s greed for money and her own bulimia obstruct the way and Peterand Ella take the gamble of a lifetime.
Live on CNN news, Peter is drowned, leaving Ella facing the question of whether she can resurrect him from the dead.
Ella is a psychic thriller that will keep you hooked until the last gripping page and leave you gasping for more.
Mark Carver, 14, St Bede’s Grammar School
The Huddersfield Daily Examiner
5th September 1998
ELLA
Uri Geller / Headline, £5.99
HE has bent spoons and astounded sceptics. Now the world renowned psychic has written his first novel.
Ella is 14-years-old. Her father is a bully and a womaniser and her mother drinks. Life is not happy and becomes more complicated when strange happeningsmanifest themselves around her distress.
The Bristol schoolgirl angers her parents and frightens fellow students when a cake throws itself on the floor, the classroom nativity scene catches fireand schoolbooks hurl themselves around.
She finds overnight fame when a newspaper carries photographs of her levitating and becomes a world celebrity as she begins to understand the hidden power of her mind.
An unusual, fascinating and entertaining story.
Brechin Advertiser
10th September 1998
Top five books
THE top five best selling publications at Brechin Books, St. David Street, Brechin, are:-
1, Flemington, by Violet Jacob (Canongate, £7.99).
2, Filth, by Irvine Welsh (Jonathan Cape, £9.99).
3, Moab is my Washpot, by Stephen Fry (Arroa, £6.99).
4, Ella, by Uri Geller (Headline, £5.99).
5, Horse Whisperer, by Nicholas Evans (Corgi, £5.99).
2nd Jan 1999
Bolton Evening News
Pick of the paperbacks
ELLA is Uri Geller’s knock-out story of a teenage girl who finds that her paranormal powers can be used for good or evil. It’s a subject he is perfectly qualified to write about and the end result is a fascinating story.
(Headline £5.99).
Publishers weekly (USA)
31st May 1999
ELLA
Uri Geller. Headline (Trafalgar Square, dist.), $9.95 paper (448p) ISBN 0-7472-5920-8
Well-known psychic Geller turns from nonfiction (Uri Geller’s Mindpower Kit) to fiction in his latest book, and though his original motive may have been to advocate his beliefs, the result is a most respectable piece of storytelling. Fourteen-year-old Ella Wallis, the daughter of an unhappy working-class family (with a domineering, adulterous father and an insensitive, alcoholic mother) in Bristol, England, suddenly finds herself developing uncontrollable paranormal powers – books fly around her, a forceful whiningsound surrounds her whenever she’s frightened. As her destructive powers increase, she is ostracized by schoolmates and soon becomes the center of a media circus. The publicity provokes a three-cornered power struggle between psychicresearcher Peter Guntarson, public relations mogul Jose Miguel Dola and Ella’s avaricious family. As Ella becomes more adept, capable of levitation, teleportation and worldwide healing, her intense friendship with Guntarson appears to give him the victory. But Ella’s capabilities are wearing away at her healthand sanity, and she may not survive Guntarson’s final challenge. Geller’s novel recalls the themes of both The Exorcist and Carrie, but it does so with intelligence, wit and an abundance of well-chosen detail, fleshing out even such unsympathetic characters as Ella’s father, Ken. Geller’s acerbicportrait of the sensationalist media adds a new twist to this predictable butengaging tale. (June)
FYI: Geller next book, Mind Medicine, will bepublished by Element in October.
May 31st 1999
Publishers Weekly
ELLA
Uri Geller. Headline (Trafalgar Square, dist.), $9.95 paper (448p) ISBN 0-7472-5920-8
Well-known psychic Geller turns from nonfiction (Uri Geller’s Mindpower Kit) to fiction in his latest book, and though his original motive may have been to advocate his beliefs, the result is a most respectable piece of storytelling. Fourteen-year-old Ella Wallis, the daughter of an unhappy working-class family (with a domineering, adulterous father and an insensitive, alcoholic mother) in Bristol, England, suddenly finds herself developing uncontrollable paranormal powers – books fly around her, a forceful whiningsound surrounds her whenever she’s frightened. As her destructive powers increase, she is ostracized by schoolmates and soon becomes the center of a media circus. The publicity provokes a three-cornered power struggle between psychicresearcher Peter Guntarson, public relations mogul José Miguel Dóla and Ella’s avaricious family. As Ella becomes more adept, capable of levitation, teleportation and worldwide healing, her intense friendship with Guntarson appears to give him the victory. But Ella’s capabilities are wearing awayat her health and sanity, and she may not survive Guntarson’s final challenge. Geller’s novel recalls the themes of both The Exorcist and Carrie,but it does so with intelligence, wit and an abundance of well-chosen detail, fleshing out even such unsympathetic characters as Ella’s father, Ken. Geller’s acerbic portrait of the sensationalist media adds a new twist to this predictable but engaging tale. (June)
FYI: Geller next book, Mind Medicine, will be published by Element in October.
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