Philip Smith - 'Shout!: The Definitive Biography of The Beatles'

Whilst Hunter Davies' 1968 book remains the only authorised biography of The Beatles, it is not definitive as, of course, the band did not officially break up until almost two years later, in 1970, when McCartney announced that he was leaving the group.

SHOUT! by Philip Norman, or Philip Smith, depending on which website you go to, is quite a confusing book because whilst it is a definitive account and is written in an easy-to-follow way, it portrays an overall negative image of Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr and basically is entirely in favour of John Lennon being "three quarters of The Beatles by himself". It is only a definitive account if you believe entirely that The Beatles only needed John Lennon to be successful, which I do not. Having previously penned biographies on Lennon, McCartney and Mick Jagger, all of which I have read, I found myself used to his style - and very familiar with his tendency to turn Lennon into a hero and McCartney into the villain who usurped The Beatles from under his friend's nose. I find that because of this, I do not agree with a lot of what Norman has written in SHOUT!, as well as his Lennon and McCartney biographies. George Harrison, in fact, made some 'creative' edits when given a copy to sign. However, despite my disagreement with Norman's point of view, I found myself enjoying the book and devouring it like the last slice of a chocolate cake.

In his previous works, Norman has always spent four or five chapters at least focusing on his subjects' early lives; their childhood, their family and even going back to the origins of their grandparents. This book was no different; it gave an insight into the histories of the four Beatles, and how each of their backgrounds brought them into the group and led them to music. This was incredibly helpful and actually there were several things in their early lives which I had not heard about before. I thought that I had read every Beatle biography out there and knew it all, but apparently I was wrong!

Focusing on each Beatle in turn until they got together and became a part of the band was quite helpful because it wasn't just a focus on one Beatle (though of course, John's story seemed more in depth, better researched and more favourable than Paul's, or George and Ringo's). I have the 2003 edition, which included a preface written following the death of George Harrison - in it, Norman acknowledges that perhaps he had gone a bit far in the original version with his God-like worship of John Lennon, and he makes the argument that Beatlemania never truly faded away, and in fact it picked up slightly after the death of John Lennon and George Harrison in 1980 and 2001, respectively.

The entire story of The Beatles is told expertly and at the right pace to be completely in depth but not boring nor all encompassing. Once again, the skill of Norman is made obvious here as he manages to hold the audience through what some might call the uninteresting years - pre Beatlemania, and pre-1964.

The version of the book which I had does have parts added; parts which acknowledge the death of John Lennon and George Harrison, as previously mentioned, but also which bring the book into the 21st century, telling of Paul's loss of the lovely Linda, his first wife, and of him being knighted. To have a reworked, updated edition was nice because it brought the story up to what was modern day at the time of release.

Overall, this book was as much an inside view as you could get without being one of the Fab Four - though it tells the story very much in favour of Lennon, making jabs at Paul as "showbiz Paul" and calling George Harrison an "average guitarist who got lucky". It is one side of The Beatles' story, but short of reading Mark Lewisohn's definitive three-volume biography, is the fullest story you will get.

It may be worth noting that a young Mark Lewisohn was Norman's assistant when he was writing the original version of 'Shout!'