John Winter

John Winter is the author of four books which are currently available on Amazon.

‘Blame It On The Beatles … And Bill Shankly' (published 2019) tells the astonishing story of how the sudden, worldwide fame of The Beatles, and the transformation of Liverpool Football Club under Bill Shankly, changed the city of Liverpool and the teenagers who were living there.

‘Cunard Yanks’ (published 2024) also links you up with the Beatles. It is 1954 and you join two Liverpool teenagers as they sign up with Cunard and set sail across the ocean from their war-torn home city to the bright lights of New York which will soon be the richest city in the world. They marvel at American popular culture. They see Buddy Holly and the Crickets perform live at The Apollo in Harlem. And they carry home records like Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis Presley which were yet to be released in England. They play these records to the Beatles and other young skiffle bands in the city at clubs like The Casbah and The Cavern. With the addition of some special Liverpool magic the result is Merseybeat. And led by the Beatles it conquers the world.

John Winter was there as it all happened. Both books let you experience at first hand the unique atmosphere of an amazing time to have been young and living in Liverpool as the city became world famous. A tidal wave of popular music and sport changed everything. And now, over half a century on, it still does.

Take a look at them now. There is also a great website for ‘Blame It On The Beatles…And Bill Shankly’ with lots of extra information about all his books..

In 2014 he published his first book ‘Aiming High - Overland to the Himalayas 1971’, also available on Amazon. It is an account of a journey along what was then ‘The Hippie Trail’ from England to the highest mountains in the world. The overland route to India would now be almost impossible to complete because of the dangers which travellers would face in countries like Iran and Afghanistan. He travelled to the Himalayas as the medical officer to a team who were attempting the unclimbed West Ridge of a peak called Indrasan, said by the experts to be more dangerous and difficult than Everest. Before joining the expedition he had no experience at all of mountaineering. He had not even attempted the easy walk to the 3,560 foot summit of Snowden, the highest peak in England and Wales. The book is a tale of high-altitude mountaineering as seen through the eyes of a non-climber.

“Quite simply brilliant.” “The writing and the pictures blew me away. It was like being up there in the mountains myself.”

His other book (published 2022), ‘It’s A Doc’s Life’, is a light-hearted and amusing account of 45 years in medicine.

“A triumph of a book. Extremely entertaining. I laughed out loud at several of the stories.” (C.R. - Worcester) (