THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY

• John Lennon
• Paul McCartney
• George Harrison
• Ringo Starr
• 1960-62
• 1963
• 1964
• 1965
• 1966
• 1967
• 1968
• 1969-70

             Many books have been written about The Beatles, but this is their own permanent written record of events up until 1970.
             The text attributed to Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and the supplementary text by Neil Aspinall, Sir George Martin and Derek Taylor, comes in part from the interviews from which the television and video programmes The Beatles Anthology were made, and includes substantial material which was not included in either. Further major interviews were conducted with Paul, George and Ringo specifically for this book.
             The text attributed to John Lennon comes from an enormous wealth of worldwide sources researched over several years (again, specifically for this book), including print and broadcast media, and public and private archives. These sources are credited at the back of this volume. The text has been arranged to follow the book's chronological structure and to maintain the pace of the narrative. To allow the reader to place John's quotes in their correct historical perspective, each quotation is suffixed by the date it was spoken, written or first published. The year of the quotation is represented by the last two digits only, such that, for example, 1970 is represented by 70. The date generally applies to all text preceding it until another date is reached.
             In a very small number of cases it has not been possible to date a quotation accurately (even thought it contains John's words); in this event, the words, but no date, are included.
             For additional historical context, a small number of original quotations by Paul, George, Ringo and others from the period up to 1970 have also been included. These have also been dated using the two-digit year suffix, as with John's words.
             The photographs, documents and memorabilia reproduced come from a wide variety of sources. George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have each granted access to their private archives during the compilation of this volume. Furthermore, unrestricted access was granted to the photographic and documentary archives of Apple, as well as the archives of EMI. This is in addition to the work of the other photographers and agencies represented, who are also credited at the back of this volume, where the reader will find, too, selected captions which clarify the content of certain photographs and other illustrations.
             This book has been prepared for publication by the editorial team at Genesis Publications for Apple, with the co-operation of the late Derek Taylor who consulted on the book up until his death in 1997.