num_pages: 642
description: From the award-winning author of Maam Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret comes a fascinating hilarious kaleidoscopic biography of the Fab Four.On April 10th 2020 it will be exactly 50 years since Paul McCartney announced the break-up of the Beatles. At that point we will be at the same distance in time from 1970 as 1970 was from 1920 the year Al Jolson's Swanee was the bestselling record and Gustav Holst composed The Planets.The Beatles continue to occupy a position unique in popular culture. They have entered people's minds in a way that did not occur before and has not occurred since. Their influence extended way beyond the realm of music to fashion politics class religion and ethics. Countless books have doggedly catalogued the minutiae of The Beatles. If you want to know the make of George Harrison's first car you will always be able to find the answer (a second hand two-door blue Ford Anglia 105E Deluxe purchased from Brian Epstein's friend Terry Doran who worked at a dealership in Warrington). Before she met John Lennon who was the only Beatle Yoko Ono could name and why? Ringo. Because ringo means apple in Japanese. All very interesting but there is as yet no book about The Beatles that combines the intriguing minutiae of their day-to-day lives with broader questions about their effect  complicated and fascinating  on the world around them their contemporaries and generations to come.Until now. Craig Brown's 1-2-3-4: The Beatles in Time is a unique kaleidoscopic examination of The Beatles phenomenon  part biography part anthropology part memoir by turns humorous and serious elegiac and speculative. It follows the unique exploded biography form of his internationally bestselling Ma'am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret.
language: English
title: One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time
publisher: Fourth Estate