I have to peer closely. Is that really us? “What have you in common with the child of five whose photograph your mother keeps on the mantelpiece? Nothing, except that you happen to be the same person.” George Orwell My mum’s cousin, Margie Beirne left us in December. Margie was…

Eloping couple marry in Gibraltar Two days after Paul and Linda’s wedding, John and Yoko are in a car on their way to visit John’s Aunt Mimi. After a deep discussion on the back seat, they announce glad tidings to their driver. “We’ve decided to get married.” “Congratulations, sir. When’…

And why did January 1st become New Year’s Day? Hogmanay is the word used to describe the very distinctive Scottish celebration of New Years’s Eve. This includes the singing of Auld Lang Syne while linking arms — a tradition has spread across the world. Other famous customs include ‘first-footing’ —…

Five months before the Ed Sullivan show a band member flew into St Louis “America has everything, why should they want us?” George Harrison, 1964 America was always Oz for all four Beatles, the world they aspired to. It was the backdrop to the films they watched, the magazines they…

An unexpected early morning phone call never means good news. January 15, 2015: 6.00 am “Is that Mr McGovern?’ I brace myself. For a mad-split second, I wonder if it’s Dad the lady wants to speak to. Then she adds my name to the one we share. “This is Hammersmith…

September 1921. Two young people from different worlds meet on the boat train to Dublin — The evening before he left for America, Danny walked home early from the fields with his father. The rest stayed on to get every last strand of hay, as the Harvest moonlit the darkening sky. They sat at the kitchen table, only the flickering red candle light from the Sacred…

There were only eight words on the page but Oscar’s attention had wandered from them. ‘Try sounding,’ I said, tapping my pencil at the beginning of the sentence. Oscar glanced up at my big head towering above his. Then he read fluently. “The Harvest Moon was high in the sky.” …

The young John Lennon hated wearing glasses. Problem was he couldn’t see beyond his nose. What would the teenage Beatle have envied most about our modern technology? I suspect it would not be Spotify or fancy synthesisers. …

Official Christmas records were only for British fan club members In 1963 the Beatles Fan Club issued From Then To You. A Beatles Christmas Record, the first of what would be seven extraordinary flexi-discs. …