Brian Epstein didn’t just manage the Beatles – he transformed them into the most famous band the world has ever known. A young record-shop owner from Liverpool, he took four relatively unknown musicians and set out to make them ‘bigger than Elvis’, changing pop music, celebrity and British culture forever. Only a few years older than John, Paul, George and Ringo, he called them ‘the Boys’, guiding, protecting and relentlessly believing in them as no one else did. Without Brian Epstein, there would have been no Beatles as we know them.

Brian’s achievement in a profession in which he had no experience remains astonishing. A passionate devotee of classical music, he was nevertheless instrumental in shaping a new kind of pop that would revolutionise its sound, its business and Britain’s image around the world. Yet for all his achievements, he received no public honour – and scarcely any thanks.

Drawing on a remarkable cache of exclusive interviews with those closest to him, Philip Norman delivers the most intimate and revealing portrait yet of this complex, conflicted and ultimately tragic figure. Mr Moonlight reveals the depths of Brian’s many trials and tribulations – how he almost lost the Beatles to organised crime; the antisemitism and homophobia he endured even at the height of his success; his intense and fraught relationship with John Lennon; and the haunting circumstances of his lonely death during the so-called Summer of Love.

At once revelatory and deeply moving, Mr Moonlight restores Brian Epstein to his rightful place at the heart of the Beatles’ story.

From the author of the million-copy selling Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation and the bestselling John Lennon: The Life comes  a revealing portrait of George Harrison, the most undervalued and mysterious Beatle.

Despite being hailed as one of the best guitarists of his era, George Harrison, particularly in his early decades, battled feelings of inferiority. He was often the butt of jokes from his bandmates owing to his lower-class background and, typically, was allowed to contribute only one or two songs per Beatles album out of the dozens he wrote.

Now, acclaimed Beatles biographer Philip Norman examines Harrison through the lens of his numerous self-contradictions.  Compared to songwriting luminaries John Lennon and Paul McCartney he was considered a minor talent, yet he composed such masterpieces as ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ and ‘Here Comes the Sun’, and his solo debut album ‘All Things Must Pass’ achieved enormous success, appearing on many lists of the 100 best rock albums ever.  Modern music critics place him in the pantheon of Sixties guitar gods alongside Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards and Jimmy Page.

Harrison railed against the material world yet wrote the first pop song complaining about income tax. He spent years lovingly restoring his Friar Park estate as a spiritual journey, but quickly mortgaged the property to help rescue a film project that would be widely banned as sacrilegious, Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Harrison could be fiercely jealous, but not only did he stay friends with Eric Clapton when  Clapton fell in love with Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd, the two men grew even closer after Clapton walked away with her.

Unprecedented in scope and filled with numerous colour photos, this rich biography captures George Harrison at his most multi-faceted: devoted friend, loyal son, master guitar-player, brilliant songwriter, cocaine addict, serial philanderer, global philanthropist, student of Indian mysticism, self-deprecating comedian and, ultimately, iconic artist and man beloved by millions.
 

Despite being hailed as one of the best guitarists of his era, George Harrison, particularly in his early decades, battled feelings of inferiority. He was often the butt of jokes from his bandmates owing to his lower-class background and, typically, was allowed to contribute only one or two songs per Beatles album out of the dozens he wrote.

Now, acclaimed Beatles biographer Philip Norman examines Harrison through the lens of his numerous self-contradictions.  Compared to songwriting luminaries John Lennon and Paul McCartney he was considered a minor talent, yet he composed such masterpieces as ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ and ‘Here Comes the Sun’, and his solo debut album ‘All Things Must Pass’ achieved enormous success, appearing on many lists of the 100 best rock albums ever.  Modern music critics place him in the pantheon of Sixties guitar gods alongside Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards and Jimmy Page.

Harrison railed against the material world yet wrote the first pop song complaining about income tax. He spent years lovingly restoring his Friar Park estate as a spiritual journey, but quickly mortgaged the property to help rescue a film project that would be widely banned as sacrilegious, Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Harrison could be fiercely jealous, but not only did he stay friends with Eric Clapton when  Clapton fell in love with Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd, the two men grew even closer after Clapton walked away with her.

Unprecedented in scope and filled with numerous colour photos, this rich biography captures George Harrison at his most multi-faceted: devoted friend, loyal son, master guitar-player, brilliant songwriter, cocaine addict, serial philanderer, global philanthropist, student of Indian mysticism, self-deprecating comedian and, ultimately, iconic artist and man beloved by millions.
 

With unprecedented access to Jimi’s younger brother, Leon, the two most important women in his life and numerous previously untapped sources, bestselling music biographer Philip Norman resurrects the real Jimi from the almost mythical icon who has continued to influence young guitarists. His death in 1970, aged only twenty-seven when his fame was at its height, has long been rock’s greatest unsolved mystery. But finally we learn where the responsibility lay for Jimi’s lonely, squalid end.

‘An engaging memorial to a rock revolutionary whose music, in contrast to many of his revered Sixties peers, retains much of its explosively thrilling voodoo power’ The Times