‘Liverpool is always on guard. They know that the English look up and over with suspicion and doubt, stumped by the language, needled by the snappy, mongrel confidence, outmanoeuvred by the fast logic-shredding wit. The city is also always wary at what might appear over the horizon, from the endless heavy sea, at what unknown force, for good or evil, might wash up on their vulnerable, open shore.’
Paul Morley, The North (And Almost Everything In It)
© Francis Kenny 2010
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher, Shepheard-Walwyn (Publishers) Ltd
First published in 2020 by
Shepheard-Walwyn (Publishers) Ltd
107 Parkway House, Sheen Lane,
London SW14 8LS
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-0-85683-532-2
Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NL
Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by Short Run Press, Exeter
Contents
Milestones in the Life of John Lennon
Chapter 1;1800s: City of Outsiders
Chapter 3;1940–45: Salvation Army Hospita
Chapter 4;1946–50: Wandsworth Jail
Chapter 6;1955–57: Town and Country
Chapter 7;1957–60: Hope Street
Chapter 8;1960–61: The Wyvern Club
Chapter 9;1961–62: Great Charlotte Street
Chapter 10;1961–62: The Grapes
Chapter 11;1963–64: Liverpool Town Hall
Chapter 12;1964: Hansel and Gretel House
Chapter 14;1965–66: Candlestick Park
Chapter 15;1966–67: Cavendish Avenue
Chapter 16;1967–68: Foothills of the Himalayas
Chapter 19;1969 (Part 2): Tittenhurst
Chapter 20;1970–71: Dakota Building
Foreword by Bill Harry
JOHN LENNON could only have been born in Liverpool and Francis Kenny certainly provides an answer ‘why’ in this book, analysing John’s life and what made John Lennon become John Lennon.
It was due not only to the times John lived through and was born into, but the thread that wound throughout the city’s history, including its Celtic heritage, due to its existence as one of the greatest ports in the world.
Capturing history before it fades and disappears forever is difficult because even recent history has its many different aspects, seen from different points of view, which often distort the reality of events. However, dedicated research often continues to uncover facts which have been contrary to events that really happened, such as the fact that John was never born during a heavy air raid, which so many previous books have contended.
This isn’t a roller-coaster ride, skipping through John’s life, but a carefully prepared examination of his early years, slowly examining the general picture that surrounded John’s life, rather than focusing on one specific aspect, wrapping the surroundings of the city, the family, the friends, the music and the events which forged the young man who became a 20th-century icon into a whole.
Some of the conclusions in John’s personal story might prove controversial because time and the passing of many of the main
