Most books about the Beatles are by writers who never met them. Ray Connolly was lucky. He was a journalist and he knew all of them, John Lennon confiding in him that he’d left the Beatles four months before it became public knowledge; and later Paul McCartney asking him for an interview so that he could explain his side of the break-up.

Before that, Connolly went to Beatles’ recording sessions at the Abbey Road studios, knew the Beatles' wives, visited the homes of three of them, and was a frequent visitor to the Beatles' Apple London base. In the front row at George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh in Madison Square Gardens, he also followed the Magical Mystery Tour around England’s West Country, and when John Lennon decided to send his MBE back to the Queen it was Ray Connolly he phoned to break the news.

Later, when John Lennon lived in New York, there would be letters from him, while Ringo had the second lead in the movie That’ll Be The Day which Ray Connolly wrote.

This isn’t a biography of the Beatles. Nor is it a dissertation on their music or an analysis of their lyrics. It is Ray Connolly's story of the Beatles, a selection of some of his many interviews with them and others connected with them, as well as articles, reviews, news stories and reflections that he's published over the past forty five years in various British national newspapers – as well as several pieces being published here for the first time.

Home, culture and Lady Madonna - Paul;
Ringo back from meditating - ‘It was just like Butlins’;
The Magical Mystery Tour - ‘Maybe we goofed,’ says Paul;
‘Sometimes I go to John’s house and play with his toys and sometimes he comes and plays with mine’- Ringo;
The Apple boutique…from take-away to give-away;
The enigmatic Yoko;
Paul talking about the White Album;
Great and turbulent times at Apple;
‘If George leaves, he leaves…’ said John, during the unhappy filming of Let It Be;
On the roof - the last gig;
Paul marries Linda and John marries Yoko;
The Ballad of John and Yoko;
There are various ways of doing business…and there’s Allen Klein’s way.
Elvis, Dylan, John Lennon and me;
Paul talks about the Abbey Road album;
‘Paul is dead’ and John’s MBE goes back to the Queen;
‘I’ve left the Beatles…’ said John;
A weekend in Canada with the Lennons;
‘You’re the journalist, not me…’ said John;
Paul on ‘Why the Beatles broke up’;
John and 'the Ignoble Alf';
John talking about his songs;
John…‘performing flea’ or ‘crutch for the world’s social lepers’?;
George and the Concert for Bangladesh;
'Imagine that’s the B-side', said John;
John and Yoko’s early days in New York;
Michael X and John;
'No more four gods on stage’, says John;
Ringo in the movie That’ll Be The Day;
Paul on how he turned down John’s invitation for them to play together again;
John's Lost Weekend;
Paul and his favourite songs;
Paul – the Japanese Jailbird;
Unimaginable - December, 1980;
Mark Chapman and what turns a fan into a killer;
The story of Working Class Hero’- the Beatles movie that never was;
Twenty years after Sergeant Pepper - hit and myth?
Paul talks about the Beatles Anthology;
Linda McCartney 1941-1998;
The story of Paul and Linda;
‘That’s the youngest tramp I’ve ever seen,’ when George first went to the Cavern;
Paul back at the Cavern;
George is stabbed;
John, the FBI and MI5;
Hospitals, gangs, drums and Ringo;
Has Yoko whitewashed John’s image?
George the reluctant Beatle 1943-2001;
Paul in Las Vegas;
Liverpool Dr Winston O'Boogie Airport;
Mal Evans - the gentle giant;
‘That was so cruel, inhuman’ - Cynthia Lennon;
Pete Best…the man with a knife in his back;
My lost Beatle interviews;
A degree in Beatleology;
‘Save Abbey Road’;
Lennon the Unfunny - never;
Produced by George Martin.