I was wandering past that discount bookshop near where I work again the other day (see my previous entry:  Paul McCartney “Now and Then” )  and found a couple of copies of this book sitting on the shelves:

It’s the (very thick!) paperback edition of the Lennon biography   “John Lennon – The Life” , by Philip Norman. All 853 pages of it.  It came out (originally in hardback) in 2008.  The shop had about six copies – most were pretty beaten up, but this one was in very good condition and so what was an avid collector to do but get a copy….

Norman’s connections to the Beatles date back to a book he wrote in 1981 called “Shout – The True Story of The Beatles”.  He’s also written about Buddy Holly, the Rolling Stones and Elton John.

To see a pretty good review of “John Lennon – The Life” by Michael Faber from the respected The Guardian newspaper click here , and another review here from the Sydney Morning Herald‘s Frank Carrigan.

For collectors, note the hardback version of the book has a slightly different cover:

I really like the cover photo the designers have chosen. To me its a very open, natural John Lennon who is looking out at you from the bookshelf. For those who are interested in these things I noticed this further variation of the cover floating around the internet. I think this is another British paperback version. Not as good or as classy as the one above imho, but different again: