Mr Moonlight

The definitive biography of Brian Epstein – the man who made the Beatles – by leading Beatles biographer Philip Norman.

Brian Epstein didn’t just manage the Beatles – he transformed them into the most famous band the world has ever known. A young record-shop owner from Liverpool, he took four relatively unknown musicians and set out to make them ‘bigger than Elvis’, changing pop music, celebrity and British culture forever. Only a few years older than John, Paul, George and Ringo, he called them ‘the Boys’, guiding, protecting and relentlessly believing in them as no one else did. Without Brian Epstein, there would have been no Beatles as we know them.

Brian’s achievement in a profession in which he had no experience remains astonishing. A passionate devotee of classical music, he was nevertheless instrumental in shaping a new kind of pop that would revolutionise its sound, its business and Britain’s image around the world. Yet for all his achievements, he received no public honour – and scarcely any thanks.

Drawing on a remarkable cache of exclusive interviews with those closest to him, Philip Norman delivers the most intimate and revealing portrait yet of this complex, conflicted and ultimately tragic figure. Mr Moonlight reveals the depths of Brian’s many trials and tribulations – how he almost lost the Beatles to organised crime; the antisemitism and homophobia he endured even at the height of his success; his intense and fraught relationship with John Lennon; and the haunting circumstances of his lonely death during the so-called Summer of Love.

At once revelatory and deeply moving, Mr Moonlight restores Brian Epstein to his rightful place at the heart of the Beatles’ story.