John & Paul
By Ian Leslie
- Genre
- Art, Culture & Creative Life
- Publisher
- Faber & Faber (UK)
- Publication year
- 2025
- ISBN
- 9780571376117
John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs is a music book by the British writer Ian Leslie, published by Faber & Faber in March 2025. It examines the relationship between John Lennon and Paul McCartney through their songs. A Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, it was longlisted for the 2025...
The Lennon-McCartney songwriting credit is the most famous partnership in popular music, and Ian Leslie reads it as what it truly was: a love story, with all the intimacy, rivalry and heartbreak the phrase implies. John & Paul moves song by song through the friendship of two men who met as teenagers, conquered the world and then spent years unable to speak, finding in their music the feelings they could not otherwise express. Leslie, better known for books on psychology and persuasion, brings an outsider's fresh eye and a fan's devotion, close-reading the tracks for emotional evidence. intendle recommends it as one of the most moving Beatles books yet written - less concerned with dates than with the human bond beneath the catalog. A Sunday Times and instant New York Times bestseller, longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize, it will send you back to the records hearing new things. Proof that the best music criticism is really about people.