The John Lennon Letters

I read it from cover to cover and will probably give it as a Christmas present. -- Jarvis Cocker THE GUARDIAN 20121013 The triumph of these 200 or so letters is that they are not just about John and Mimi, or John and The Beatles, or John and Yoko. they are all of that but, within the framework editor Hunter Davies has given them, they're about a time and place, and Lennon's role within it. -- Arifa Akbar THE INDEPENDENT 20121013 A labour of love -- Simon Mayo R2 SIMON MAYO 20121010 Hunter Davies, the man who wrote the official 1960s biograph of The Beatles, releases The John Lennon Letters today, a collection of nearly 300 quirky letters and postcards sent by Lennon to his family and friends, giving an insight into his life and humour. EVENING STANDARD 20121005 A treasure trove -- Pat Kenny RTE RADIO 'TODAY WITH PAT KENNY' 20121008 Correspondence with estranged family is especially touching in later years TIME OUT 20121009 The detective work in sourcing the material was carried out by Beatles biographer Hunter Davies. As Yoko Ono writes in a foreword, he has done well. BLOOMBERG NEWS 20121010 Davies was contacted by the band's manager, Brian Epstein, to write the only authorised pre-Yoko Beatles biography (first published in 1968), so to be entrusted with the keys to the kingdom of Lennon's correspondence (to which Ono own the copyright) more than 40 years later is a diplomatic coup upon which Kofi Annan might look with envy. -- Ben Thompson SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 20121014 Though most of the letters are slapdash and artless in themselves, they have a curiously moving cumulative effect when taken as a whole. -- Craig Brown MAIL ON SUNDAY 20121014 The book exudes beauty in an all-white hardbound book. The paper is especially high quality and heavy. The letters are in color, and very well-copied. I highly recommend this book for Lennon fans who want more than surface information; the fan who studies and researches Lennon's life, and want to understand his history. For those who care to really digest it, they will learn a great deal. -- Shelley Germeaux IRISH EXAMINER 20121015 Long years of research and collection have enabled Davies to compile this revealing archive of notes, doodles, pranks, protests and heartfelt confessions from the Liverpool art-school kid who became an icon of the 20th century. i NEWSPAPER 20121016 Much of Lennon's correspondence is published here for the first time. Beatlemaniacs will no doubt home in on his sometimes violent exchanges with Paul McCartney in the 1970s, but equally interesting are the more quotidian entries, like grocery lists, homemade Christmas cards and curiously loopy responses to fan mail. INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE 20121013 While his public expression is that of a quick-change artiste, the private correspondence is constant. His handwriting is that of an intelligent being. He is often charming, which is maybe surprising. He evinces a generosity of spirit in letters to strangers. He is loyal to his often very odd relations and his ne'er-do-well father. His jocular punning and externally adolescent verbal extravagance are recurrent. -- Jonathan Meades EVENING STANDARD 20121011 It looks beautiful: the cover is 'Imagine' - white, the pages carefully designed to weave Hunter Davies's commentary around both the letters themselves and the transcripts. THE SPECTATOR 20121027 More than 200 examples are published (set out in chronological order so the story builds), painstakingly tracked down or borrowed back from those who'd paid handsomely to own them, all full of glorious turns of phrase and, occasionally, in mangled language. SAGA 20121101 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.