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Paperback writers cash in on The Beatles

The Beatles are set to storm the charts again with nine new entries 30 years after the legendary band broke up. But this time Britain's most revered group will become a permanent fixture in the bestseller list of books, rather than the pop charts.

 

At least nine Beatles-related titles are expected to be published in the coming months, adding to the Liverpool foursome's popularity two decades after John Lennon's assassination by a stalker in New York. Leading the way will be the authorised ‘The Beatles Anthology’ and a biography of the group's manager, Brian Epstein.

 

Other books include an illustrated volume of Sir Paul McCartney's paintings, a reissue of Lennon's collection of verse entitled ‘In His Own Write’, and a look at The Beatles time in India in the late Sixties with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The mystic helped to inspire songs on The Beatles best known album, ‘Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’.

 

While a generation has been born and raised since The Beatles were together, they remain a major moneymaker and cultural presence. The band's albums have sold more than 50million copies worldwide over the past decade.

 

Dozens of Beatles fan clubs still exist, from Ireland to Australia, Russia and Brazil.

Beatles books have been coming out since the group first formed, but readers apparently still want more. ‘The Beatles Anthology’ is an oral history assembled by the three surviving Beatles - Paul, George and Ringo - along with Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono. It has advance orders of more than one million and will be published in at least eight languages.

 

Publishing consultant Constance Sayre said: "I remember being at the booksellers' convention a couple of years ago and Linda McCartney was there to promote one of her vegetarian cookbooks. The publisher gave a party and you should have seen the line-up of people to shake Sir Paul's hand. You've never seen such a crowd. The Beatles are certainly a big deal with booksellers."

 

A minor surprise is the reissue of ‘Lennon Remembers’, the late Beatles famously bitter, marathon interview with Rolling Stone magazine publisher Jann Wenner, given just as the group was breaking up.

 

Lennon agreed to the interview on condition that Wenner did not put it out in book form. When he did so, Lennon was enraged and spoke bitterly about Wenner right until the end of his life.

 

But the new publication arrives with the approval of Yoko Ono, who contributed a foreword. Material originally edited out has been restored and some lyrics never recorded will be included.

 

Ono writes: "Lennon Remembers is classic Lennon. It's not a sit-back-and-put-your-feet-up read. It's a jolt on your nerves like bad, bad espresso. People with weak stomachs should close the window before reading. You might just feel like jumping out."

 

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