With a Little Help from Their Friends: The Beatles and the People Who Made Them

A surprising, charming, and kaleidoscopic history of the Beatles, told through 100 people close to them

The story of the Beatles is more than just their omnipresent songs and their iconic albums. It’s more than the hair, the clothes, the generational defining spirit. It’s even more than Paul and John and George and Ringo. The Beatles wouldn’t be the Beatles without a little help from their friends.

These four legends didn’t change the world in isolation; their story has an incredible supporting cast of family, friends, managers, producers, publicists, ex-bandmates, fellow musicians, and more. These somebodies shaped the Fab Four through ambition, power, friendship, heartbreak, tragedy, intrigue, humor, lust, and of course, love.

Stuart Maconie’s With a Little Help From Their Friends is the epic story of the iconic band through the people who made them, from childhood days in Liverpool through the crucible of Hamburg and on to international superstardom. It’s a charming mosaic of a book, a fresh look written with deep knowledge and passion.

Stuart Maconie is a writer, broadcaster, and journalist familiar to millions in the UK from his work in print, on radio, and on TV. His previous bestsellers, published in the UK, 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. 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.