This is the book we have all waited for. For almost 30 years we have waited; and MAN!!! Was it ever worth the wait. This book is at first glance; one of the most beautiful books I've ever held in my hands. The paper used is thick, heavy, and smooth as silk. It's a rather large book, which gives the photographs an impact few books have offered before. Even the shots I've seen before are striking. This is by far the most comprehensive document ever published on the "Fab Four". So many surprises, so many "little" details that only the boys could know. Everything about the "Anthology" project has been done with such loving care, and this book is no exception. The beatles have given the world so much over the past four decades; and now, with this rich impressive chronicle, they give us their own personal recollections of a time when the world was just beginning to learn how to ROCK!!! Thank you, John, Paul, George, Ringo, George Martin, Neil Aspinall, Mal Evans, Derek Taylor, Klas Voorman, and Yoko Ono. This is without doubt; the "Ultimate" book on "The Beatles". Still the most influential band in the history of Rock n' Roll.

So very many books were written about the Beatles, and so many TV documentries were made about them. Anthology is definitely the best one yet, and I don't think there will ever be another book as complete and sincere as it. For the first time the Beatles tell their own story (yes, even John - material from old intreviews with him are beautifuly collected and edited into the book), along with some help from George Martin, Derek Taylor and Neil Aspinall and some old quotes from Brian Epstein, Mel Evans, Pete Best and others, and that makes Anthology a truly unique experience. The story is told from such a personal viewpoint that you will feel like you're part of the band. George, Ringo, Paul and John will become your closest friends for the period of reading the book.

Anthology covers every (well, probably almost every) aspect of the Beatles' life and musical career. It starts as four seperate stories as every band member describes his childhood, then melds into the story of the band. All the interviews from the wonderful Anthology TV series are in the book, but so are many more. There are far more details - especially about the music itself, which was neglected in the series. While in the series some albums were hardly mentioned, in the book the Beatles refer to almost every song, telling a thing or two about its background. Also, more touchy subjects which were avoided in the series appear here - such as, the (phony) death of Paul McCartney, the (real) death of Stuart Sutcliffe, the unfortunate Hell's Angels incident and the terrible case of Charles Manson and his connection to the White Album. The photographs and documents shown in the book are facsinating as well.

And no, it's NOT too long. The only problem with the book is its weight, which makes it quite uncomfortable to read. Anthology is a superb book, which reminded me why I used to love the Beatles so much and got me to hear all their albums again - twice.

This past weekend, my copy of The Beatles Anthology came from Amazon.com. The deliverer was glad she didn't have to go to the front office with it since it's so heavy!

This book is special because the Beatles themselves are the authors! There are also contributing quotes from Pete Best, Stuart Sutcliffe, George Martin, Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall and others.

The stories are great, from their childhood (John being an avid reader in grade school, Paul's father supporting his music skills, George mastering the guitar at a young age, and Ringo being shuffled in and out of hospitals) to their days in Hamburg (John claims that's where he truly grew up!).

In Hamburg, John, Paul, George, Pete, and Stu play various taverns (and meet Ringo) until Stu falls in love and abandons the Beatles. It seems like Ringo fits in better so they eventually sack Best for Ringo.

Funny stories include Mal breaking a windshield on a cold day while driving the Fab Four to their next gig and the Beatles hiding like school kids from an angry George Martin after missing a recording session!

They meet celebrities like Fats Domino, Little Richard, the Queen, and the King (Elvis).

John discusses "Help", "Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds", and "Revolution 9", Paul discusses "Yesterday", "Eleanor Rigby", "Yellow Submarine" and the Abbey Road Medley (particularly its highlight "The End"), George discusses "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Taxman", and Ringo discusses "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus' Garden".

There are the sore subjects, too, like Manilla (Paul claims they were the 1st to snub Marcos), John's comments about Jesus, the death of Brian Epstein, the breakup coming close on the White Album and later on Let It Be.

Although some of the photos and interviews here can be seen and heard in the Anthology video series and some perhaps read in other books, this brings most everything you need to know about the Beatles in full circle.

And of course, the Beatles experiment with drugs (and later both John and George get
busted by Sgt. Pilcher for possession of them), seek spiritual guidance from the Maharishi (is he as "cosmic" as they think?), fall in love (John with Yoko, Paul with Linda). Unlike in the video series, there is mention of Paul being "dead" and the final nail in the coffin for the Beatles in late 1969 and 1970.

You can't tell it all even in this one (no mention of the Christmas singles, save for a poem by John called "Wonsapon a Pool Table"), but since the Beatles themselves (and their closest comrades) speak for the Beatles, a lot of myths and legends are put to rest. If you're a Beatles fan, you won't want to pass this by!

You can always count on Thomas for your kids to enjoy. His stories are almost always a lesson, but fun in the process. I only wish that there were more tapes and story combinations available. I still do prefer to read to my son, but he also loves to just listen to the story by itself while playing. I hope they come out with more soon.

My 3-year-old son listened to this cassette repeatedly with a walkman when we took a 4 hour flight. A stress-free flight courtesy of Thomas.

My son loves Thomas the Tank Engine and this book, with the cassette, helps him with his pronunciation of the words that he is having trouble saying. I wish that there were more then 4 books on tape with Thomas.

I finished reading this book recently and I have to say it is an excellent book. When Hunter Davies first interviewed the Beatles for this book from 1967-1968, it was before all the bickering and fighting started and before Yoko came into the picture. Davies takes an inside look in thier home and family life, the songwriting process, and recording sessions. It also gives a pretty good background on their childhoods and how they all met. Not to mention a lot of great pictures, including some I never seen before. The only reason I didn't give it five stars was because it is not a totally definative bio. Lots of things were left out because it upset thier family members. For example, it is not mentioned that Brian Epstein was homosexual because it upset his mother at the time. And some things were left out of John's childhood because it upset his aunt Mimi. Other than that, I reccomend that you read this book. It is smart and thouroughly researched. A must have for all Beatles fans!

As a 14 year old Beatle fan I read this book in its original release in 1968. (I think just about everyone in my Catholic girl's school in Queens was reading it). I loved reading about the birth of the Beatles; their days in Liverpool and Hamburg, their early influences, etc. I have always remained a fan and recently reread the book. I loved it just as much the second time around -- it brought me back to a time I loved and I remembered how great it was the grow up in the 60's and the Beatles were a big part of that great decade. My 14 year old daugher (also a Beatles fan) loves it as well. I never expected this reaction - I was suprised that the Beatles still have a huge amount of young fans. Suprised and happy because we certainly have found some common ground. She loved learning about the Beatles and the decade they came to represent. I do think this is the best book on the Beatles to date I (and the only authorized one as far as I know)- although I hear there will soon be an autobiography by Paul, George and Ringo. It's a must read for any Beatles fan!

I'm sure there were books about the Beatles written before this, but this book was written with the Beatles (complete with interviews). Hunter Davies includes some of his own opinions in later editions but this is about the Fab 4, their rise, and where they were in 1968 when this book originally came out (John admits to be bored with life as Yoko Ono had not yet been a household name to us and George was already sick of being a Beatle at the time). The later editions have a section about the breakup, what they did individually in the 1970's, the tragedy of John Lennon in 1980 and more recent interviews with Paul, George, and Ringo. You can trust Davies since he got the Beatles' authorization and respected their privacy (he mentions that George Harrison asked that certain things not be printed). As Davies points out, this story is about the rise and not the fall.

The stories are good stories,
the pictures are neat, and
the characters are interesting.

This book, though, tends to be written
in a sort of fragmentary style,
leaving out a bit much, and often
not giving a good idea of why one
picture follows another.

On the other hand, my 3-year-old likes
it, like all her other Thomas books.

Do you know of a young child who enjoys the "Thomas the Tank Engine" segments on the PBS show "Shining Time Station"? Does this child enjoy having stories read to him or her? Then "A Cow on the Line" would be a great addition to the child's library. This book features 42 photographs from the Britt Allcroft video productions on its 32 pages. All photos are quite clear. The pictures are well placed to keep the attention of young listeners. Because the text could serve as a script for the television segments, this is a "read to me" book. A strong third- or fourth-grade reader could handle the text, but the sentence structure and phrasing is beyond beginning readers. As listed above, the book contains 4 stories. Only one features Thomas -- Percy and Edward take the spotlight in this book. The stories are true to the nature of the "Thomas" series and are a delight to read. And if your child is like the two year old in our house, he or she won't even mind if you don't sound like Ringo Starr or George Carlin (the video narrators) when you read the stories!

My son makes me read this book every night before and it is TORTURE! Every character is mean and nasty, the language is very British and obtuse, and frequently the stories just don't make sense. I moan every time Jackson asks for this book, and I call it 'the PEW book of all time.'

This is one of Ringo's finest recordings yet. Without his soothing voice, I would have went crazy and killed people years ago. But now I listen to this tape every night and I think to myself: Aren't I just like Diesel, the arrogent mean tank engine. So now I strive myself on being just like Thomas. YOU SHOULD TOO.

My son loves this story. We have the story itself recorded on tape so that he can just play it... otherwise we'd lose our voices reading it over and over. With bright pictures and an articulate story (with a moral: the honest hard working engine wins out in the end over the wicked arrogant one), this book others in the series have our son completely charmed. It keeps him busy for hours!

It seems this book was written for the author to show off how many big (and useless) words are in his vocabulary. Although it is filled with some good and valuable information you can't read more than a few pages at a sitting because of the writing style. If you took all of the useless words out the book would be about 75 pages.

This book was much harder to read than I expected. The author is British and expects that his readers are all British. Unless you have an intimate knowledge of England, its television shows, its local celebrities and its slang, it is easy to get lost. As an American, I found myself unable to follow a good deal of the book. I understood enough to get the gist, but feel I missed an awful lot of the information because it may as well have been written in a foreign language.

As an inveterate Beatles fan, I was naturally drawn to this book. Clayson does an admirable job of following Ringo from his early days in the rough Dingle section of Liverpool to his years as a Beatle and beyond.

Clayson's use of quoted interviews with people who knew and worked with Ringo is what makes this book so effective. I like the way he portrays Ringo as approachable, as somewhat humble about his stellar success as one quarter of the world's number one band. This is definitely worth reading.

I bought this book and was excited about being able to take it right home and play along to the Beatles recordings on my guitar. I opened up to "I Saw Her Standing There" and put on my Please Please Me CD and to my surprise and dismay the book was in a different musical key than the CD, way off! I'm assuming they did that to make the songs easier to play on piano, but it wasn't what I wanted. Disappointed I took the book back and then ordered The Complete Beatles Scores from Amazon. I've been much happier with that book.

Glad to see that other reviewers share my thoughts on this infuriating "Maze" of a book. By the end of the first page you realize that you've walked into something that's hopelessly tangled and confused. You keep stumbling on in the vain hope that the whole nasty mess will EVENTUALLY "Straighten itself Out" . No such luck. Your persistence DOESN'T pay off. The endless twists and turns only get worse. I bought my copy for $ 15 at a local market. Boy, what a waste of Money!I started to read it late one evening. After a couple of minutes I found myself mumbling such comments as "What the hell is this all About ?". It's like reading a foreign language .... I couldn't "Cotton On" to ANYTHING he was saying. By page 23 I'd had enough .My head was spinning. I felt quite dizzy ... like I'd just completed 15 circuits of "The Whip" at "Luna Park" at high speed. A word of advice to would-be purchasers.... Load up on your favourite "High" if you want to give yourself a fighting chance of being able to make head nor tail of this utterly nonsensical waste of paper . If being inarticulate was an Olympic event, Mr Clayson would be a gold medalist. Suitable only for use as a doorstop when those hot North winds start to blow. Books like this could have a laxative effect on some readers.

This book is just hard to read -- period. One would think that a biography on Ringo would be like himself -- fun. Instead, Clayson wrote a book on an interesting subject and made it as much fun to read as the collected works of Milton. Maybe Clayson is embarrassed that a writer of his "caliber" is churning out books on Ringo, instead of writing the great British novel, and wants the reader to suffer along with him. God knows he seems more intent on showing the reader how smart he is, rather than informing and entertaining us.

Clayson also seems focused on Pete Best, who I guess gave him an interview (Ringo would not). Finally, there are many sloppy factual errors in the book. The one error I found most ridiculous was Clayson's saying that there was trumpet on Helter Skelter. A trumpet? Is he sure there wasn't a fiddle and banjo on that one too?

One of the few interesting things about the book is a picture of Ringo as Elton John tries to kiss him. His expression is priceless.

There are many books about The Beatles but most of them focus on the accomplishments of the group as a whole or the exploits of Lennon and McCartney, and to a lesser extent, George Harrison. Ringo Starr is usually overshadowed, so a biography on his life should have been a worthy addition to any Beatle fan's bookshelf. Unfortunately, it's not the book it could have been and ultimately disappoints.
Beginning in his teddy boy days in Liverpool and ending with his first "All Starr Band" tour, this biography does have segments to recommend it. In particular, the chapters covering 1970-1990, as Ringo's post-Beatle life has been chronicled less than his days as a mop top. We get some insight into his successes and failures in this period including wayward record deals and a bout with alcoholism.
Sadly though, Clayson's book fails to get close to his subject in any meaningful way. Ringo wasn't interviewed for it and nor were any direct family or former lovers or any of the other Beatles or Beatle sidekicks or musicians who worked with his after the break up. Clayson relies almost solely on newspaper stories, articles in the music press and other author's books to piece together Ringo's story. Those interviewed for the book are a bunch of no-names who could probably call themselves acquaintances of the man but nothing more. It's obvious that Starr and everyone who is really close to him, decided not to cooperate with the author, so Clayson's book reads like a scrappy research project cluttered with endless footnotes. Because of this, the book lacks depth and we learn little of the man who was once Richard Starkey. Clayson's writing style is also quite awkward because he tries to string together forty to fifty referenced quotes into each chapter, making it read like a university thesis at times. The odd factual tidbits are the only thing that recommend it because other than that, it's a hollow book, lacking both insight or emotion.