John Lennon: The Life

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Philip Norman. John Lennon: The Life

JOHN. LENNON. THE LIFE. PHILIP NORMAN

Table of Contents

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1 WAR BABY

2 THE NORTHERN CONFEDERACY

3 THE OUTLAWS

4 SHORTSIGHTED JOHN WIMPLE LENNON

5 THE GALLOTONE CHAMPION

6 BUDDIES

7 MY MUMMY’S DEAD

8 JEALOUS GUY

9 UNDER THE JACARANDA

10 MACH SCHAU

11 THE SINGING RAGE

12 SHADOWLANDS

13 LUCKY STARS

14 LEATHER TONSILS IN A THROAT OF STEEL

15 THE BIG BANG

16 THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN

17 REAL LIFE IN CINEMASCOPE

18 A MOST RELIGIOUS FELLOW

19 BREATHE

20 MAGIC, MEDITATION AND MISERY

21 THERE’S A GOOD LITTLE GURU

22 BACK TO VIRGINITY

23 BEDLAM

24 WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS

25 BEATLEDÄMMERUNG

26 THE YIPPIE YIPPIE SHAKE

27 TROUBLE WITH HARRY

28 BEAUTIFUL BOY

29 HOMEBODY

30 STARTING OVER

POSTSCRIPT SEAN REMEMBERS

INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Copyright

About the Publisher

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To Jessica

Title Page

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To Alf’s credit, he expressed himself willing to take Julia back and bring up the baby as his own. But Pop Stanley, fearing the inevitable public disgrace, insisted it must be put up for adoption. On 19 June, 1945, five weeks after the war’s end, a girl was born to Julia at Elmswood, a Salvation Army maternity home in North Mossley Hill Road. Victoria Elizabeth, as Julia had named her, was adopted by a Norwegian couple named Pederson, who renamed her Ingrid Maria and took her off to Norway, out of her real mother’s life for ever.

This period of crisis and upheaval in the Stanley family saw four-year-old John, for the one and only time, handed over to the care of his Lennon relatives. During Julia’s pregnancy and confinement, he was sent to live with Alf’s brother Sydney, a man whose respectability and drive to better himself even Mimi had come to acknowledge. Sydney, his wife Madge and their eight-year-old daughter Joyce welcomed John to their home in Maghull, a village between Liverpool and Southport. He was left with Sydney and Madge for something like eight months. The life they provided for him was stable and loving and, as time passed, they assumed that they’d be allowed to adopt him officially. So confident were they of this outcome that they put his name down to start at the local primary school the following autumn. Then Alf turned up one night without warning and announced he was taking John away. Despite Sydney’s protests about the lateness of the hour, he insisted they had to leave immediately. All the family were distraught at losing John, Madge in particular. Soon afterward she adopted a six-week-old baby boy to fill the void he had left.

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