The Gospel According To Lennon
by Alan Clayson

Potted bio-style books built heavily on fragments

Despite both being The Gospel According To…, only the Presley book builds itself around quotes from the legend in question. For almost half of this book, aspects of Presley’s life, from comments on Las Vegas to references to James Bond, are given a quote from Elvis to pin it on. Followed by a brief biography (each year essentially given a page), sessionography and filmography, this really is for the beginner. You’ll have to be a beginner who likes their King cleancut, though, as it pretty much paints him as the saintly figure that lives on in the most overly devoted/ blinkered subjects’ minds.

Clayson’s Lennon book is better, and more even-handed, being that he’s mostly drawn on his own vast archive of contemporary press clippings, and his extensive knowledge. As such, his ‘biography half’ is full of interesting tidbits that, while not too revelatory, add some colour that you don’t get in similar Lennon accounts. With the second half shining the light on more specific parts of Lennon’s life, you can find out what he had to say to news of Mick Jagger’s marriage, and also that the Daily Express supposedly thanked fate that Mark David Chapman hadn’t killed the ‘much more talented’ Paul McCartney.

ISBN 1860746567

Reviewed by Jason Draper
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