WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM THEIR FRIENDS: The Beatles changed the world. But who changed theirs
By (Author) Stuart Maconie
HarperCollins Publishers
HarperNorth
1st October 2025
5th June 2025
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Social and cultural history
Hardback
320
Width 159mm, Height 240mm, Spine 23mm
270g
The most engaging, surprising and revealing look at the Beatles story youll read.
Everyone knows a Beatles tune. But their story goes beyond the omnipresent songs and iconic albums. Theirs is a tale that has become one of the core stories we tell about ourselves as a nation. The Beatles narrative has both shaped and reflected the country we live in today. Four lads from Liverpool have taken a seat alongside Shakespeare as one of our key cultural exports to the world, a world they changed and re-made in their own image in a blaze of creativity. But these four distinct personalities changed the world not in isolation but with more than a little help from their friends.
Like all the best stories theres an incredible supporting cast, and all the most compelling elements of the great dramas: ambition, power, triumph, disaster, heartbreak, tragedy, drama, intrigue, lustand of course, love.
Split into 3 sections, Before The Beatles, With the Beatles and Beyond the Beatles, bestselling writer and broadcaster Stuart Maconie tells the epic tale of the people who made the band who made Britain, and along the way adds his own experiences, encounters and conversations that show the Beatles like youve never seen them before.
PRAISE FOR STUARTS WRITING
'Maconie is a funny, astute writer, alert to the absurd. Sunday Times Book of the Week
Observant and witty. The Times
Stuart Maconie is a writer, broadcaster and journalist familiar to millions from his work in print, on radio and on TV. His previous bestsellers have included Cider with Roadies, Pies and Prejudice and Adventures on the High Teas. He hosts a show for BBC Radio 6 Music (with Mark Radcliffe) every weekend morning between 8 and 11am.Based in Birmingham and Manchester, he can also often be spotted on top of a mountain in the Lake District with a Thermos flask and individual pork pie. He is a champion ice skater and once shared a van with Napalm Death.