Thursday 20 January 2022

BOOK REVIEW: Imagine This: Growing Up With My Brother John Lennon - Julia Baird


TITLE: Imagine Tjis: Growing Up With My Brother John Lennon
AUTHOR: Julia Baird
PUBLISHED BY: Hodder And Stoughton

This is an honest and revealing story of John Lennon's childhood by his sister Julia; it is a beautifully written, poignant memoire which takes readers back to Julia’s childhood years and the time she spent with her half-brother, John Lennon. It is an emotional journey transporting readers back to the 1940s and later, with personal memories and recollections of the time spent with her family and John.

The battle between two strong, self-willed women, John's mother and his Aunt Mimi, to have custody of John in his early years is detailed along with how John frequently returned home to spend time with his mother and half-sisters, Julia and Jackie; how he learnt to play guitar and inherited his love of music from his mother.

It is clear that Julia has been on a personal journey of her own, along with sister, Jackie, as they discovered they have a half-sister, Victoria, (later renamed Ingrid), the result of an affair their mother had while John’s dad was away at sea, who was adopted at birth; the half-sister they have never really known. Julia didn’t learn of Victoria’s existence until after John’s death; John never knew her.

Julia relates how the tragic death of their mother, knocked down outside Aunt Mimi's house by a speeding car when John was seventeen, meant that life for him and his sisters would never be the same again. Julia and Jackie weren’t told that their mother was dead until months after it had happened; they were never invited to her funeral and they had no idea where she was buried. It wasn’t until Julia’s daughter decided to look up her grandmother’s burial plot under the name of Julia Lennon that the girls were ever able to visit the gravesite

Touching and at times distressing this raw account of life as a youngster is lovingly written; I admit to shedding a tear at times as this emotive record of Julia and John’s young life unfolds and sheds new light and revelations which may account for his emotional fragility and musical genius.

This is a stark look into the life of Julia and John and their family from birth until the time of John’s death; it is about the person who was John Lennon before he became famous, a young boy struggling to understand why he didn’t live with his mother and at the same time, trying to make a success of his life. There is little about The Beatles although Paul, George and Ringo are mentioned along with Yoko Ono and Brian Epstein. The recollections are more about the humane side of John, the brother who Julia loved and later admired.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and looking back to times I can relate to in Liverpool along with the descriptions of family life as it was in the 1950s; it vividly captures the time and place and the characters. Local places mentioned and experiences lived during Julia’s younger days were related with affection and transported me back to fond shared familiarities which I could relate to.

Julia’s family history is told with a mixture of affection and animosity plus a fondness for Liverpool and the places John frequented. She has had to bear the loss and tragedy within her family which most families have not had to endure and she relates her own personal struggles and how she has dealt with them. I’m sure writing this memoire has helped her lay to rest a lot of hostility and bitterness she may have experienced before managing to understand the reasons for many of her family members' actions and rationales. 

This memoire is one family's extraordinary story of how it dealt with life, tragedy beyond all imagining, and later with the fame one family member brought to it. It is a passionate read, poignant, interesting and revealing; it flowed excellently, I found it hard to put down. Who knew what had gone on behind the scenes of family life whilst we were watching John rise to fame in the most famous band there ever was? Beatles's fans, and those who are not, will enjoy and be interested in this family chronicle; it is both fascinating and engaging whilst offering an insight into a brilliant and complex man.

Although Julia’s book is about growing up with John Lennon, it is dedicated to their mother, Julia.

Reviewer - Anne Pritchard


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