My Ticket to
Ride – How I Ran Away to England to Meet the Beatles and Got Rock and Roll
Banned in Cleveland
By Janice
Mitchell
Published September
15, 2021- Gray & Company Publishers
Price: UK £12.99
ISBN: 9781598511161
This autobiographical account of Janice’s real-life
adventure in 1964 was a fantastic and fast read. When the book was first offered to me to
review, I wasn’t expecting much. So many fans have tales to tell about their
adventures trying to meet The Beatles, but I was skeptical that any one
person’s tale could fill a nearly 300 page book. I was proved wrong!
I was sucked into her story from the first page and couldn’t
put it down. I finished it in a single weekend and promptly bought a copy as a
Christmas gift for my best friend!
Part of the draw was that I saw similarities to Janice and
her friend Marty. I wasn’t old enough to be a fan when The Beatles were still
together, but that didn’t stop my best and me from doing some crazy exploits
such as sending Paul birthday cards and delivering them through the letter box
in the driveway gate at his London home. What Janice and Marty did went way
beyond anything we ever thought of, and to be honest, I wish we had thought of
some of the things they did such as finding a way to rent a flat in London and
visiting the clubs in Soho where the Beatles were known to hang out.
I don’t want to spoil the story by giving away the best bits
but suffice it to say while the two fans spent three weeks having fun,
discovering fish and chips, Soho clubs, and learning to navigate on the Tube,
they were blissfully unaware that every constable in London was searching for
them. Even The Beatles were looking for them!
And when they are finally found it wasn’t the happy ending
that everyone assumed. I can’t say more because it would ruin the book, but
this is a great read for people who like the human-interest side of Beatles
history. It isn’t for the fan who likes to swim in the depths of factoids about
who played which instrument on which version on a particular date. It gives a glimpse into what it was like to
be a fan of the Beatles at the height of Beatlemania and because of all the
international press at the time about the hunt for these two girls, there is
lots of documentation to support the story
~ Michele Copp