Craig Brown

WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2020 A Spectator Book of the Year • A Times Book of the Year • A Telegraph Book of the Year • A Sunday Times Book of the Year From the award-winning author of Ma’am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret comes a fascinating, hilarious, kaleidoscopic biography of the Fab Four.

One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time

Joana da Silva

There are very few things that connect my life with The Beatles' history. My dad was born in 1966 and by then they were already household names around the world. My mom was born in 1970, the year where they came to an official end. I didn't grow up in a house where people listened to the Beatles. However, when I first listened to Paperback Writer at the age of 13 it felt like home. Of course, I'd already known some of their hits, but finding that little single worked some magic on me. 
As I've said before, this book is beautifully written and made me smile like no other. The testimonies, the little anecdotes, everything makes total sense as a whole. It's a journey through their story and who they were as individuals, among other stories about other individuals that made their way into The Beatles' world. I loved this book with all my heart and I would like to formally apologize to everyone who had to withstand my spurs of Beatles trivia while I was reading it. It's such a fascinating world, I couldn't keep it all to myself. 
During one of the chapters, the author mentions Paul McCartney's Carpool Karaoke and I had to rewatch it immediately. I cried with pure joy while watching Paul McCartney playing in a pub because 1) I envied those people, 2) their music is such an embrace and it never fails to make you feel home and 3) I miss listening to live music on a pub with my friends.

Isya Rikk

Ivan Shiel

WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2020 A Spectator Book of the Year * A Times Book of the Year * A Telegraph Book of the Year * A Sunday Times Book of the Year From the award-winning author of Ma'am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret comes a fascinating, hilarious, kaleidoscopic biography of the Fab Four. John Updike compared them to 'the sun coming out on an Easter morning'. Bob Dylan introduced them to drugs. The Duchess of Windsor adored them. Noel Coward despised them. JRR Tolkien snubbed them. The Rolling Stones copied them. Loenard Bernstein admired them. Muhammad Ali called them 'little sissies'. Successive Prime Ministers sucked up to them. No one has remained unaffected by the music of The Beatles. As Queen Elizabeth II observed on her golden wedding anniversary, 'Think what we would have missed if we had never heard The Beatles.' One Two Three Four traces the chance fusion of the four key elements that made up The Beatles: fire (John), water (Paul), air (George) and earth (Ringo). It also tells the bizarre and often unfortunate tales of the disparate and colourful people within their orbit, among them Fred Lennon, Yoko Ono, the Maharishi, Aunt Mimi, Helen Shapiro, the con artist Magic Alex, Phil Spector, their psychedelic dentist John Riley and their failed nemesis, Det Sgt Norman Pilcher. From the bestselling author of Ma'am Darling comes a kaleidoscopic mixture of history, etymology, diaries, autobiography, fan letters, essays, parallel lives, party lists, charts, interviews, announcements and stories. One Two Three Four joyfully echoes the frenetic hurly-burly of an era.

One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time

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