John Lennon was a writer as well as a musician. It was entirely natural for him to put pen to paper whenever he had an idea a thought a reaction or a desire to communicate. He lived
- & died
- in an age before emails & texts. Pen & ink was what he turned to. John wrote letters & postcards all of his life; to his friends family strangers newspapers organisations lawyers & the laundry
- most of which were funny informative campaigning wise mad poetic anguished & sometimes heartbreaking. For the first time John's widow Yoko Ono has given permission to publish a collection of his letters. The Editor is the Beatles' official biographer Hunter Davies who knew John well. John's letters are in a way something of a mystery
- where are they all? Over the years many have come up at auction then sold to dealers & collectors. Or they have been kept by the recipients locked up safely. It has been a wonderful piece of detective work tracing many of these 250 letters postcards & notes which are arranged in chronological order so that a narrative builds up reflecting John's life. It will be visual
- in a sense that many of the letters are reproduced as they were in his handwriting or typing plus the odd cartoon or doodle. THE JOHN LENNON LETTERS is fundamentally a book to read & study providing a unique insight into the mind of one of the great figures of our times.