AUTHOR: Julia Baird
PUBLISHED BY: Hodder And Stoughton
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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