We all Want to Change the World: The Life of John Lennon

John Lennon (1940-80) was the founder of the most successful pop/rock group of all time, The Beatles. Convinced of his genius from an early age, he explored his own complex, witty personality in his songs, drawing on drugs, meditation and psychotherapy for insights into his art. His career was transformed in 1968 when he joined forces with Yoko Ono. As the Beatles broke up, the extraordinary couple became public “clowns for peace”, and familiar figures in the international protest movement. Lennon’s groundbreaking solo work during the 1970s would be overshadowed by the success of the 1971 “Imagine”. The song became an anthem after he was shot by a mentally disturbed fan in New York on December 8, 1980.

John Wyse Jackson’s biography is published to commemorate the 25th anniversary of John Lennon’s death. Touching for the first time on his Irish roots and how his background influenced his music, philosophy and attitude to life and politics, it travels to the heart of the ‘little child inside the man’.