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Get Back
The boys who became The Beatles
Brief Description
Get Back: The Beatles' only authorised biographer now, for the first time, tells the story of the boys before they were famous. 'They did not seem arrogant or entitled. I didn't see them bossing around their staff or being horrid to studio assistants. But they did...
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September 2026
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Get Back
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Description
Get Back: The Beatles' only authorised biographer now, for the first time, tells the story of the boys before they were famous.
'They did not seem arrogant or entitled. I didn't see them bossing around their staff or being horrid to studio assistants. But they did worry if this was all there was. All this fame and fortune, was it really all that great? The world saw them as an overnight success, who had come from nowhere. But they knew from whence they had come. Perhaps that's what kept them grounded.'
Hunter Davies, the only authorised biographer of The Beatles, revisits his treasured 39 notebooks filled with remarkable interviews to explore the lives of John, Paul, George, and Ringo as they were growing up and coming of age.
Drawing on a wealth of never-before-revealed, intimate material, and his own experience as a boy of similar age from a working-class Northern background, Hunter now tells the story of where they came from, what it was like, how it shaped their hopes and aspirations.
Hunter spent three years with The Beatles, visiting all their homes, and each of them visiting his. He also spent time with their parents, school friends, teachers, girlfriends, members of the Quarry Men, and many others from their inner circle. Their conversations often harked back to the War, with memories of air-raid shelters and rationing, to the NHS coming in, the eleven plus and grammar schools, and council house life in the 1950s.
We all know what they became famous for, but here Hunter takes us into the much more private world of their formative years, for this colourful, richly detailed, personal portrait of the young boys who were destined to come together and revolutionise music and pop culture.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781529977530
Publisher: Ebury Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 17 September 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Ebury Spotlight
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 40.0mm
Width: 153.0mm
Height: 234.0mm
Weight: 700g
Pages: 320
About the Author
Hunter Davies OBE is the author of the only ever authorised biography of The Beatles, first published in 1968 and still in print in almost every country in the world. In 2012 he edited The Lennon Letters, published in 20 different foreign countries, and in 2014 The Beatles Lyrics. He is the author of more than 100 other books, including novels, biographies, travel and children's titles. As a journalist, he has written for Punch, the Guardian and the Sunday times, and continues to contribute to the New Statesman. He lives between a home in North London and a Dutch barge on the Isle of Wight.
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βWarm, revelatory and movingβ β The New Statesman's Books of the Year, 2024 At the end of almost every day of their fifty-five years of married life, the publicity-shy author Margaret Forster would ask her naturally gregarious and outgoing husband Hunter Davies to describe to her the highlights of his working day spent in the worlds of journalism and publishing....Hardback$5499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The John Lennon Letters
A lifetime of letters, collected for the first time, from the legendary The Beatles musician and songwriter John Lennon. John Lennon is one of the world's greatest-ever songwriters, creator of 'Help!', 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds', 'Imagine', and dozens more. Now, his letters have been collected and published, illuminating as never before the intimate side of a private genius....Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
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Over 100 handwritten manuscripts of the Beatles' original lyrics, tracked down from friends of the band, museums, universities and collectors. Hunter Davies, author of the only authorised biography of the Beatles, worked with the band in their heyday. Here he reveals each song's context with vivid behind-the-scenes stories and gives a unique insight into the creative process of the world's...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
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