John Lennon: The Life

For more than a quarter century, Philip Norman's internationally bestselling Shout! has been unchallenged as the definitive biography of the Beatles. Now, at last, Norman turns his formidable talent to the Beatle for whom belonging to the world's most beloved pop group was never enough. Drawing on previously untapped sources, and with unprecedented access to all the major characters, here is the comprehensive and most revealing portrait of John Lennon that is ever likely to be published.

This masterly biography takes a fresh and penetrating look at every aspect of Lennon's much-chronicled life, including the songs that have turned him, posthumously, into a near-secular saint. In three years of research, Norman has turned up an extraordinary amount of new information about even the best-known episodes of Lennon folklore—his upbringing by his strict Aunt Mimi; his allegedly wasted school and student days; the evolution of his peerless creative partnership with Paul McCartney; his Beatle-busting love affair with a Japanese performance artist; his forays into painting and literature; his experiments with Transcendental Meditation, primal scream therapy, and drugs. The book's numerous key informants and interviewees include Sir Paul McCartney, Sir George Martin, Sean Lennon—whose moving reminiscence reveals his father as never before—and Yoko Ono, who speaks with sometimes shocking candor about the inner workings of her marriage to John.

Honest and unflinching, as John himself would wish, Norman gives us the whole man in all his endless contradictions—tough and cynical, hilariously funny but also naive, vulnerable and insecure—and reveals how the mother who gave him away as a toddler haunted his mind and his music for the rest of his days.

From the Publisher

Since John Lennon's assassination in 1980 neither of the two attempts at a full scale biography of this towering 20th century icon have succeeded in getting to the bottom of the story or bringing John alive on the page. Philip Norman's John Lennon: the Life is thus the first definitive biography and the best ever likely to be written. During three years of research, Norman had access to all the major players in the story, notably John's widow, Yoko Ono, who speaks with candour about the inner workings of their marriage, and their son Sean, who provides a moving reminiscence of the father he lost at the age of five.

Co-operation has also come from the likes of Sir Paul McCartney; the Beatles' record-producer, Sir George Martin; and the late Neil Aspinall, the band's closest associate, who broke a 40-year rule not to talk to writers in speaking extensively to Norman.

The book in addition has unprecedented access to never-before-seen letters, family documents, artworks and photographs. Its masterly narrative is presented with the historical sweep and literary verve that has made Philip Norman's Shout: the Beatles in their Generation a classic of biography, in any genre.

About Philip Norman

Philip Norman is an award-winning novelist and biographer who, in 1969–70, was assigned to cover from the inside the breakup of the Beatles' own business utopia, Apple Corps. He is the author of Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation, Rave On: The Biography of Buddy Holly, and many other books. He lives in London.

Book signings

Tuesday 7th October 2008, 6:30pm

Waterstone's, Piccadilly, London
Tickets £3 redeemable against purchase of the book on the night.

Philip Norman will be 'in conversation' with Paul du Noyer, discussing John Lennon: The Life, an in depth look at John Lennon's early years, through to his time with the Beatles.
Further details: 0207 851 2400

Wednesday 8th October 2008, 7:00pm

The Beatles Story, Liverpool
Further details: 0151 709 1963

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