Hunter Davies Books

Although this book captures the Beatles like a still life, it is an excellent starter biography of the World's Best Band. This book takes readers down the Long & Winding Road of each Beatle; readers learn about the Beatles' origins and immediate families.

The photographs are delightful; one smiles at young John Lennon, instantly recognizable. Paul with his younger brother is easy to identify as is Ringo as a very young boy. George, a winsome lad with thick, wavy hair is readily recognizable - a picture of George at his first dance in 1958 shows a well groomed boy with the trademark smile and profusion of wavy hair. Readers are treated to the "maturation" or progression of each Beatle.

The book dodges many a sharpened dart; there are no salacious stories or affairs reported in this Beatle biography. It is a cleanly framed portrait of the boys who formed the World's Greatest Band and readers will undoubtedly enjoy this one.

I read this book with great enthusiasm. Its age gives it a unique and fascinating historical perspective. John and Cynthia were still married, Apple was a brand new venture, the Apple Boutique was still in business, "Magic" Alex was still an "electronics expert," Jane Asher had not yet consigned the early Lennon-McCartney notebooks to the trash, and Brian Epstein was still in the closet. The narrative is obviously sanatized, but it also contains interviews with Aunt Mimi and Fred Lennon and others. At times it reads like a well-researched term paper, but the frozen-in-time point of view gave it a special charm that any fan will enjoy and appreciate.

Hunter Davies doesn't take the Beatles phenomenon nearly as seriously as most writers, despite the fact that he wrote the only authorized biography of the Fab Four back in the 60s. This book is part biography and part personal memoir by Davies (recalling the times and some of the fibs surrounding the Beatles).

The Quarrymen were John Lennon's skiffle band, the group Paul McCartney went to see on July 6, 1957 (when he first met John) and that Paul and George subsequently joined, which changed everyone's life forever. The book focuses on the original Quarrymen (Rod Davis, Len Garry, Eric Griffiths, Collin Hanton, Pete Shotton and John Lennon) and follows them through to their "reunion" minus John in the 1990s. It is principally interesting for (1) placing the Beatles' phenomenon in the context of the place and times, and (2) illustrating the amount of hysteria that continues to cling to the Beatles' legacy to this day. It is NOT a prequel to Davies' Beatles book, nor is it "essential reading," but it is definitely fun.

Plus, it's interesting to look at the Beatles' vague memories of the Quarrymen in Davies' Beatles book and then to compare those with the vivid memories that the Quarrymen themselves have of their close brush with fame (including the fact that they couldn't afford to have a tape made of their 1958 record (which everyone except Quarryman Duff Lowe, who had it, had forgotten about) -- it cost about one pound more than they could scrape up between them!).

Anyone who has ever read Hunter Davies' authorized 1968 biography of The Beatles (-and it's worth noting that its 1996 revised edition contains many very good pages of added preface, additional writing on 1968-1996, and appendices-) knows that he is a good writer, not just another silly fan writing another Beatles book. The Quarrymen is the story of John Lennon's first band told with interviews with all of the other musicians as we follow their lives, as well as those of John and later Quarrymen Paul and George, over the many years. The regrouped Quarrymen were quite the rage at 90's Beatles conventions around the world and the book tells that tale too. Normal Liverpudlian blokes whose lives were brushed by fame and passed by all those years ago. Only Pete Shotton, Lennon's best friend from childhood, kept up with the Beatles over the Fab years and this too adds entertainment to his life story. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern to the Fabs, normal folk with normal lives, who just happened to play in Lennon's skiffle band. A fun read for any fan.

about The Beatles, this is one. Excellent and balanced. Another is "Shout! The Beatles in Their Generation". Both -- note -- were written by journalists who actually knew The Beatles over years, and were appreciated because they weren't sensationalizers or backstabbers.

Those two stand head and shoulders above the trashy "The Love You Make," the author of which Lennon said only came in at the tail end, took three-martini lunches, and was one of those angered by the break-up because it ended the "gravy train".

Those sorts of realities about books about The Beatles are essential for those who don't realize the relative qualities of the books and authors of them, and as result fall for the Browns, Goldmans, and Guilianos. Do a little additional research and determine, for example, how many authors of books about The Beatles claim to have been "insiders" but in fact could not have been. (How many "fifth Beatles" were there? One would guess "One," right? It must be hundreds by now, most of whom never even met The Beatles, let alone got their autographs.)

This is one of the few essentials. Read it and rely on it as a measure against all the others.

Ah, I remember first reading this classic biography in the early 1980's, and reading it over and over again. I was a pre-teen and had just become a Beatles freak - - I'd thought I found the holy grail. It didn't occur to me until much later that this was an authorized biography, written from a fan's perspective. As such, looking back on it, it succeeds. Hunter Davies was there with the Beatles, knew McCartney fairly well and hung out with all of them for a time. He could've really written a major work had he waited till after the break up, but chose to get it out quickly and after approval from the Beatles. It is very intimate and light, the structure allows for a breezy and anecdotal approach. The Beatles really talk to the public of 1968 in a serious and intimate way that they hadn't done in their many press conferences. Emphasis apparently on early years, their rise as Davies puts it, and on the magazine style profiles of each Beatle (to 1968). The chapter on George Harrison is surprisingly thorough on his new found religious beliefs. It does include an update for the break up and decades following, but this adds little. (besides, Peter Brown's more gossipy "Love You Make" handles that period better)
It's rather weak on the incredible development of the Beatles music from LP to LP, and devotes one brief chapter on it - - actually, that he was present at a couple of John and Paul's songwriting sessions is a plus. Otherwise, Davies is rather hopeless in giving readers insight on this vital area of Beatles. But to be fair very few have succeeded in discussing the Beatles music anyway. (OK, I'll give a nod to Mellers, Schafner and McDonald)
I also like the photos in this book, as they complement the introductory nature of the text very well, especally as done in this "illustrated" edition.
Overall, I still consider this a great book (hence the 5 stars), a nostalgic favorite of mine - - the 2nd book I'd ever read on the Beatles (Miles' "Beatles In Their Own Words" was 1st), when I was hungry like a pig for more. I recommend this to be the first book new fans read if they're seriously interested in the history of the great Beatles. This will do!

I own the 1996 version of this book. It's fun to read--not because you will discover anything new about The Beatles.This book is a time capsule of the type of book you'd read in the 60s that wasn't written to embarrass it's subjects. It's how The Beatles wanted their fans to view their lives--as "normal" working guys with wives and kids! The Beatles were music visionaries but they did not foresee the future of tabloid publishing where all-things-Beatle would be exposed by anyone who came in contact with them because it is a cash cow. Mr. Davis updated the orginial book with his later experiences with the Beatles up to 1985 in my version.Those updates start to reflect the current "tell all" bios. The most famous story in the updates, is a recounting of Paul calling Mr. Davis in 1981 and ranting about things Yoko said about him (Paul) after John's death -- exposing Paul's insecurities and (I thought) his obvious grief over John's death. It is hard to believe after all The Beatles have accomplished that anyone of them could be insecure but that is one of the themes of this book. They are after all, human and Mr. Davies succeeds in showing that side of them.

As a fan of nearly 30 years, this was one of the first Beatles books I ever bought, and it remains a worthwhile buy for today's new fans. It may not be as detailed or as enlightening as the Mark Lewishon-type of books, but it benefits greatly from being written in the sixties - and having a firsthand access to the band. Hunter Davies includes many stories and insights that would simply not be available to today's writers - because they weren't there. The chapter that describes them writing 'With A Little Help From My Friends', for example, is as amusing as it is amazing. And I very much enjoyed the prologue, where Davies explains the difficulties he had with Queenie Epstein and Aunt Mimi. And his meeting with Pete Best in the mid-sixties is as poignant a scene as you will ever get in a Beatles book. It is stories like those that make the book worth buying.

This is the only biography authorized by the Beatles themselves, and it gives a detailed account of the rise to fame of the Fab Four, and many details of each band member's life. Davies was asked by Harrison not to print certain details, and an aunt suggested he revise some of the account of John's early life to make it sound better. Some details couldn't be divulged at the time, such as Brian Epstein's gay orientation, and the extent to which John was into drugs, although you get a sense of this from some brief passages in the book although Davies obviously avoids dwelling for too long on these issues. Still, despite glossing over a few negatives like these, Davies nevertheless had access to information that no other writer had, and no doubt the book benefits from that despite its being slightly sanitized.

One thing that distinguises this book from all the other bios is Davies spent a year living and travelling with the Beatles and observing them in their day-to-day lives. The year was 1967, and although the group was soon to break-up, 1967 was still a great year for the band and Davies gives many fine insights and details into the life of the group during this period. Davies enlivens the account with anecdotes and stories from many relatives and friends who knew the Beatles best.

I want to take a brief detour here to tell you about a funny piece of Beatles trivia I discovered recently, and I just have to mention it here, since I don't recall seeing it in the book. Supposedly The Beatles loved cartoons, and a friend of mine who is a big Beatles fan and trivia buff and I got to talking about it, and since I'm sort of a trivia nut myself, he suggested an unlikely cartoon, which was Popeye the Sailor, and challenged me to find a connection to the Beatles. Well, it's not known if this was a cartoon the Beatles liked or not, but after doing only about an hour of research on the web, I came up with a funny but true connection.

I found out one of the songs the Beatles often performed during their Hamburg years, before they were writing all their own songs, was "Falling in Love Again," by Sammy Lerner, an important songwriter of the 40s and 50s. But it so happens that Lerner also was enlisted to write the theme song for the Popeye the Sailor cartoon, which he did. So it turns out that there is indeed a connection between the Beatles and Popeye in that Lerner composed songs for, shall we say, both groups of singers. :-)

Anyway, I hope you didn't mind my little digression, but getting back to the book, this is a fine biography of the Beatles and is especially strong in its treatment of their early years and rise to fame. Although updated in the later edition, there isn't as much information about the post-1970 years, but as others have pointed out about the book, it's about the famous band's rise, not about their fall.

Very good book, for students who whant to success,special
for test preparation.
Fast deliver.thanks you. l`ll buy again.
Rolando A. New York.

The 2007 version is being sold in bookstores now. This version
is jam packed with pertinent information for the regents exam
on The Living Environment. The basic syllabus includes:
o natural phenomena and lab experiments
o similarity and diversity in life forms
o homeostatis
o cell function/structure + chemistry of living organisms
o genetic continuity and organic evolution
o reproduction, dynamic equilibrium
o interdependence of living things
o the human impact on ecosystems
o a comprehensive glossary
o several full regents exams (both Q/A)

The book is written in a very readable form.
There are many pertinent diagrams and charts which explain
the concepts well. i.e. egg--->adult frog development;
circulatory patterns, cleavage and differentiation, chloroplast

Last year, I was blessed with a biology teacher who's idea of a lesson was taking attendance for thirty minutes, talking about herself for ten minutes, and writing some definitions on the board for the last ten minutes of the lesson and then not going over them. So basically, I had to prepare for the living environment regents by myself. This book completely saved me because though I thought that it was too detailed at first, it turned out to be the most resourceful review book that I had. Got a 95 on the regents because of it :)

I am studying this regents biology book over the summer before I start school in a specialized HS and this is great! I came from one of those schools where they don't teach you anything, where the students teach each other. Most people at my school never knew their three times tables yet they graduated. I was on a normal school level, but they still thought i was very smart.

The point of saying all that is that if i had no teachers, i had to teach myself, and I learned absolutely nothing on science that year in [...]! So I got the [...] science test barrons book and passed.

Since I knew people from better schools are going to compete with me now, and that i wont be "smarty pants" anymore, i brought this biology book along with other barrons regents books and studied them.

Now I'm understanding everything, and I am absolutely glad I got this book.

I basically taught myself Bio (and took the SAT II and got a 800) with this book even before school began. It is pretty helpful but once again I found the older ones more helpful because the tests were harder.

We are the authors of Eating & Drinking in Italy and have used this guide for many years. If you want to have a memorable trip to Italy, stay in the small hotels listed in this helpful guide.

We used this to plan our lodging in Tuscany, and we stayed in some wonderful places. I would highly recommend it for those interested in staying in smaller hotels with lots of charm.

In 1994 my wife and I made our first trip to Italy, and in preparation for that trip I made heavy use of "The Charming, Small Hotel Guide to Italy." Upon our return, I later came across the first edition of their guide to "Tuscany and Umbria" and another for "Venice and the Veneto."

I swear by these guides-- but I have to complain a little about the latest edition. First, it has changed very little from the prior edition-- there are only a handful of new entries. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, in the interim, many of the properties listed have acquired e-mail accounts and developed websites. The internet era has made it much easier to check on room availability, current pricing, etc., but very few email addresses or URLs are listed. That complaint aside, this is a good, useful book, one I would use to plan our next trip to Tuscany-- if we couldn't get a room at "our place."

I don't know anything about soccer players, but wanted to read about bipolar disorder. I love his conversational writing style and all his English-isms throughout the book. I was saddened at how much Paul Gascoigne had to deal with...besides bipolar disorder, as if that's not enough. Yet, it's really heart-warming to see how much he accomplished and continues to accomplish...a great deal more than many who don't have his afflictions.
I don't think anyone would be disappointed reading this book.

Being Gazza is an honest look back at his life by Gascoigne. Before this book I was just familiar with the media image of him as, basically, a clown who threw away his talent by too much partying. Now I understand the medical problems underlying his behavior. The book reveals just how much suffering he has gone through and demonstrates how celebrity helps worsen serious medical problems. Takes a lot of courage to be this frank and the book is an easy read for anyone interested in the person rather than just his football career.

The Glory Game was published in 1972. It has, as the author notes in his introduction to the 1999 edition, been in print every since. The book tells the story of the 1971-72 season of the English football team the Tottenham Hot Spur Football Club. This is the prototype of many such team stories that have followed. The book succeeds because it tells the story of not only a team in the collective sense but of the individuals that made it.It also presents to the present day fan of the cash saturated Premier League a study of almost sociological precision of an era in English football which, although only thirty years in the past, is now "your father and granfather's football."The players are fairly and insightfully treated. The book is in sum their stories and the stories of their competitions. The book is complete with appendices of team plays,player's attitudes, qualities and what the players did upon retirement.The treatment of the players and coaches is far from dull or superficial.In fact the revealing nature of the book created quite a contrversy when it was published. Its insights are enjoyable reading and tell a true team story.

For the football fan, this is a classic work. Perhaps most compelling is the time capsule it represents, back to a simpler age for football, before advertising, television, marketing and crass commercialism took hold. The book is now thirty years old. Updated in the late 1990s Davies adds information on the team members, twenty-five years after they won their national cup. The reader can only marvel at how much things have changed in world football since this book emerged. Back then, an apprentice might earn [very]little...Even though that amount went a lot further back then, it was a pittance. Players were recruited at about age 13 from local teams. The glory, not the cash, earned their attention. Training consisted of some jogging, minimal weight training and drills in the basics. It was a pretty simple, and certainly unglamorous routine, ten months of the year. Medical care seemed primitive, some based more on superstition than science. Veterans would decry the lack of guts from some of the players, and the absence of grounding in the key, basic skills, e.g., ball trapping. But what a life it was! From the players' bios, it is clear that the alternative would have been to work the mines, unload ships, or collect garbage. Football was a joy! And even then, the players from the middle of the century would probably think those of the 1970s had it pretty soft.

Chapters cover several players, the manager, the early version of English hooligans, key games, a doting, almost sinister fan, and the club directors, in relatively brief, insightful and not-too-critical prose. The appendices include a study of the team's set plays and shows with statistics for the year how critical these 'dead ball' moves were to the success of the team. Brief surveys of player attitudes, life history, family, and hobbies offer a superficial profile of the club. We catch a glimpse of lives, from dads changing nappies to a manager's busy schedule, yet I felt more empty at the end than moved.

Tim Parks and Joe McGuinness have made more recent, intensive attempts to cover this same ground: a year with an Italian football team, up close and personal. A modern version of 'Glory game', featuring Man United (see, for instance, "Manchester Unlimited"), would offer stark contrasts, like Michael Lewis' recent book on American baseball.

We were in Paris in April 2000. From this book we picked a small hotel in the San Germain area, on the Left Bank. We loved the hotel, it was the perfect location for us, and great service. After reading this book, we choose five hotels that we were interested in. I am sure that any of the five hotels would have been to our liking. This book made it so easy to decided where we wanted to stay in Paris. It was recomended to us by a friend who had used it for her trip to Paris.

If you would like to find a hotel (in the words of the authors) "as alluring and memorable as the city itself", use this guidebook. If you want all the creature comforts of home, a large air-conditioned room with a big TV in a "known" chain hotel with room service, look elsewhere. Picking a hotel from the choices reviewed in this guide almost assures an added dimension to your experience in the city of Paris. It is well worth the extra $ to add this guide to your trip library in order to find that special place.

The hotels listed are typically locally owned small hotels located in wonderful historic buildings and neighborhoods. Rooms do tend to be smaller at this type of a hotel in all of Europe, including Paris, but the added character of these accommodations more than makes up for the shorter list of amenities and square footage difference. One should not spend a great deal of time in the hotel room while in Paris anyway.

These are the types of hotels I imagine the relatives of local Parisians stay at when visiting the city. Be a traveler, not a tourist, and live some of the local flavor by staying at these choices. I personally have stayed at three of the listed hotels over the last five years and all were exactly as described. Read the reviews carefully and pick the ones that sound best to you. Paris is a very special city; your hotel choice should be special also.

Although this book was published in 1980, it is a fresh and very readable introduction to the Lake District. Think Bill Bryson and you get the idea of the author's style. Wonderful treatment in particular of Wordsworth and his group, including Coleridge and DeQuincy. Irreverent humor throughout. Nice discussion of other notables such as Robert Southey (and his wonderful tongue-twisting description of Lodore Falls) and Beatrix Potter and John Ruskin.

Hunter Davies set out to write a popular biography of Wordsworth. He indicates at the outset that this is not going to be a work of literary criticism, that it is not going to focus on the development of Wordsworth's poetry.
This present work nonetheless in helping the reader understand Wordsworth the person, also helps us understand Wordsworth the Poet.
Wordsworth was orphaned from his father at the age of eight, and from his mother at the age of thirteen. He was supported by relatives who did not approve of his behavior as a child and young person. He was exceptionally independent and often rebellious child.
When his mother died he was separated from his siblings. Only at the age of seventeen did he come to see them all together again. And here began one of the most significant relationships of his life, with his sister Dorothy. She would be for him the companion of his youthful years, the great souled fellow explorer of nature and inspirer of his Poetry. She would remain even after he married Mary Hutchinson a central figure in his everyday life. For the last twenty years of that life Wordsworth and his wife cared for her. This after she had lost her mind and sat all day in her wheelchair.
One important theme that runs through this work concerns Wordsworth as family man, as good brother, as faithful loving husband, as caring father.
Wordsworth 's life too has important friendships at its center. The greatest and most creatively important is with Coleridge. Davies tells the story of their work together on 'The Lyrical Ballads', and of the many years they were close. Coleridge had a central role in recognizing and promoting his friend's genius. It may well even be that Coleridge feeling Wordsworth the far greater poet ceased writing poetry of his own because of this. Coleridge's great poems , 'Kubla Khan', 'The Ancient Mariner' are part of the "Lyrical Ballads'. But most of the twenty- three poems are Wordsworth including the very great 'Tintern Abbey'
Davies also gives us a good sense of Wordsworth's character and of the transformation with the years from revolutionary youth to more conservative figure. Wordsworth too went from financial dependency and relative poverty in his early years to greater prosperity towards the end of his life. He went from being an orphan to becoming the head of a family which included besides his wife and children two other women, his sister Dorothy and Coleridge's longed- for- one Sara Fricker. The story of how the far more gregarious talkative social Coleridge came to greater loneliness with the years- and how the more taciturn Wordsworth came to build a rich home in which he had much feminine support is told movingly by Davies.
Wordsworth's friends Southey, Lamb, Coleridge DeQuincey considered him to have lived a fortunate and happy life. This was in one sense true. But he also knew terrible losses with the years. His sailor brother John's death was a blow he recovered from only with great difficulty. He and his wife lost two young children in a year. This too devastated him. The last blow was the death of his beloved daughter Dora at the age of thirty- seven. Still Wordsworth lived to the age of eighty , in relatively good health most of the years. He also knew great renown and recognition in his latter years. And his relationship with his wife Mary only seemed to grow stronger with the years, and was one of true love and mutual respect. He who always had a special caring for children lived to see five grandchildren, the children of his eldest son, John.
Wordsworth despite the great popularity he would one day have did not have a smooth path to recognition and acceptance as a Poet. His work was for many years harshly criticized and ridiculed. The 1807 edition of his Poems received ten negative reviews and not a single good one. But Wordsworth had equanimity and confidence. The calm sublime of his Poetry was apparently that of his character also. Weathered, rugged looking Wordsworth who even in his latter years would walk twenty miles a day was a pillar of inner and outer strength. The great Poetry and most believe it was created in the decade from roughly 1797 to 1807 has stood the test of time. His life as portrayed in this biography was that of a person of virtue, principle and great genius.
I greatly enjoyed this work. It has given me a much fuller and complete sense of Wordsworth's life and work than I had had before.

Davies has written a very good book. The book is intelligent, fair and kind and thorough. It seems that all the major relationships of Wordsworth's life are carefully described. Relationships with his sister, Dorothy; his wife, Mary Hutchinson; his French amour Annette Villon and their daughter are all carefully desribed. His brothers, his children, Coleridge, Robert Southey, Walter Scott are all part of his life, and insightfully presented in the book. Davies writes well about the Lake district, and Wordsworth's business dealings. It is a good, solid, well- rounded portrayal of Wordsworth. The poetry is not analyzed, but introduced and placed in the context of the poet's life. At the end, I liked Wordsworth very much and will be happy to read more of his poetry. I would give the book 4 1/2 stars if it were possible.

This disappointing and tedious book about Wordsworth's life and times lacks insight and warmth. The author is a dabbler whose books' topics include fiction, the Beatles, and a hiker's guide to the Lakes District. The current book grew out of the author's research for his hiking guide, when he discovered that there was no other detailed, non-academic Wordsworth biography. In essence, the book is a calculated business venture rather than an expression of the author's interest in,knowledge of, or love for Wordsworth. To his credit, the author is frank about these facts, although his uninspired text could not have hidden them. The book is flawed by unnecessary and uninsightful speculation on the one hand and on the other by a general lack of sensitivity to the profound beauty of Wordsworth's work. The author's narrative style is dry, lifeless and uninspired, and Americans will be particularly put off by its distinctly British flavor, which can only be regarded as a provincial flaw in a book offered to general readers in the global market. Spelling, word choice, turn of phrase, and the assumed context are so distinctly British as to leave American readers feeling that they are overhearing a joke which they do not quite understand. Many Americans will find the book inaccessible for this reason. A much better choice is Penelope Hughes-Hallett's "Home At Grasmere", which is warm, sensitive and well written.