On Tuesday 22nd April 2025,  Bournemouth-based internationally recognised poet, James Sale, launched his latest book entitled DoorWay at The Cosy Club in Bournemouth to a packed-out room of specially invited guests. DoorWay is the third book in James’ series of poetry books from his collection, The English Cantos, and is based on a contemporary vision of Dante’s heaven. Written in Dante’s terza rima style of three-line stanzas, it draws on reflections from James’ near-death experience in Ward 17 of Royal Bournemouth Hospital.  James’ books have been described as ‘works of major significance’ by Professor Joseph S. Salemi, from the Department of Classical Languages at Hunter College, City University of New York. 

The event included readings of specially selected excerpts from DoorWay, read out by James Sale and his son and novelist, Joe Sale. Artworks inspired by the book were also on display at the event, which will be included in The Wider Circle art exhibition at Upton Country Park from June 5th to 16th. Joe has just completed the script for a film inspired by HellWard (book 1 of the series), which he will be directing in the coming months.   

James Sale said at the event “When I was being treated for cancer at Royal Bournemouth Hospital in 2011, I had a life changing out-of-body experience. I wanted to capture my experience through poetry. The format of my three books in the series is based on Dante’s Divine Comedy collection, including ‘inferno’, ‘purgatory’ and ‘heaven’. My third book, DoorWay, is all about my faith, belief and trust in a higher plane and is full of hope and love.” 

James Sale’s latest book, DoorWay, is available to order on Amazon alongside his first two books: https://amzn.to/4ivpQXQ 

More information on The English Cantos series can be found at https://englishcantos.home.blog/ 

Details of the upcoming The Wider Circle exhibition can be found at https://widercircleexhibition.com/