Product Description

There's only one book that ever truly got inside the Beatles and this is it. The landmark, worldwide bestseller that has grown with the Beatles ever since. During 1967 and 1968, Hunter Davies spent eighteen months with the Beatles at the peak of their powers as they defined a generation and rewrote popular music. As their only ever authorised biographer he had unparalleled access - not just to John, Paul, George and Ringo but to friends, family and colleagues. There when it mattered, he collected a wealth of intimate and revealing material that still makes this the classic Beatles book - the one all other biographers look to. Hunter Davies remained close with the band and as such has had access to more information over the years. This 40th anniversary edition contains new material which has never been revealed before, from the author's archives and from the Beatles themselves, that will bring new insights to their legend.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7399 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

About the Author
Hunter Davies is a prolific British author, journalist and broadcaster, best known for writing the only authorised biography of The Beatles. As a journalist he worked on the Sunday Times, where he was chief features writer, and later editor of the Magazine. He wrote regular columns for Punch and currently writes for The New Statesman, the Guardian, The Sunday Times and the Daily Mail. For three years he presented Bookshelf on BBC Radio 4. He is the author of over thirty books, including biographies, novels and children's novels. He has ghosted everyone from Gazza and Wayne Rooney to John Prescott. He is also the author of one of the most classic football books of all time, The Glory Game, and his own autobiography, The Beatles, Football and Me.

Customer Reviews

Absorbing Beatles story from a 1968 view
This is a 2009 update on Hunter Davies' original tome from 1968. By update, I mean that he has included the 1985 postscript and has now added some text from this year. These extra entries are a perfect complement to the 1968 book, which is reproduced as the main part of the book.

The story itself is utterly compelling even to long-standing Beatles fans like myself. I cannot read too much about this wonderful band even if I already know some of the facts. I say "some" because there is always something new to learn about them as you will find in this book. The author tells the story beautifully and breaks the chapters down into different segments (e.g. a chapter on each of the fab four and chapters on Hamburg, Beatlemania, The End Of Touring etc.). There is a certain chronology to the book without becoming the usual month-by-month tale.

I found it difficult to put this book down. Hunter Davies' style is crisp, witty but factual and lets family and friends do the 'talking' when necessary. I had an eerie feeling whilst reading this, especially the 1967/68 years when the breakup of marriages and indeed the band itself had yet to come. A great book for anyone who wishes to read the story about The Beatles, a marvellous one for fans like myself.

An updated edition!
I am only reviewing this book to address the 1 star given by the only other reviewer as of July 2009. The previous reviewer seemed to be complaining about Amazon's lack of information about whether the book is a reprint rather than the book itself.

Hunter Davies' was the authorised biography and this is an updated edition of that biography. It is a hugely enjoyable read and much of the content of other books on the fabs is taken from here.

It thoroughly deserves the 5 stars and is highly recommended.

Reprint?
Annoyingly, Amazon, you don't say if this is the new, revised , edition, which I want to buy