{"title":"Books by Hunter Davies","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780091930516","title":"The Beatles","description":"\u003cp\u003eThere's only one book that ever truly got inside the Beatles and this is it. The landmark, worldwide bestseller that has grown with the Beatles ever since. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDuring 1967 and 1968 Hunter Davies spent eighteen months with the Beatles at the peak of their powers as they defined a generation and rewrote popular music. As their only ever authorised biographer he had unparalleled access - not just to John, Paul, George and Ringo but to friends, family and colleagues. There when it mattered, he collected a wealth of intimate and revealing material that still makes this the classic Beatles book - the one all other biographers look to. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHunter Davies remained close with the band and as such has had access to more information over the years. This 40th anniversary edition contains new material which has never been revealed before, from the author's archives and from the Beatles themselves, that will bring new insights to their legend.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201366294706,"sku":"9780091930516","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780091930516.jpg?v=1786011006"},{"product_id":"9781471190551","title":"London Parks","description":"\u003cb\u003eJoin Hunter Davies on a celebratory stroll around London’s greatest glories – its parks.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWe need our parks more than ever before\u003c\/b\u003e, for our health and spirits, our bodies and souls, to keep us fit, to save us from pollution, to protect nature and wildlife; and Londoners are lucky enough to enjoy more green spaces than any other major city in the world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eLondon Parks\u003c\/i\u003e, Hunter Davies illustrates their wonders by spending a year walking round his \u003cb\u003efavourite parks\u003c\/b\u003e. From his local haunt on \u003cb\u003eHampstead Heath\u003c\/b\u003e to the capital’s latest wonder, the \u003cb\u003eQueen Elizabeth Olympic Park\u003c\/b\u003e, each one is chosen for its unique appeal. Informative and entertaining, he details their history, describes their layout and reveals hidden delights and new attractions that might otherwise be missed, such as the statue of a small brown dog in \u003cb\u003eBattersea Park\u003c\/b\u003e, a garden full of exotic plants and palm trees in south London’s \u003cb\u003eBurgess Park\u003c\/b\u003e or, for something completely unique, Ian Dury’s musical memorial bench in \u003cb\u003eRichmond Park\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFun, thought-provoking and uplifting, \u003ci\u003eLondon Parks\u003c\/i\u003e is an essential companion for anyone wishing to explore the ever-green beauty of Britain’s capital city, whether it’s spotting pelicans and politicians in St James’s Park, the birds in the London Wetland Centre or the views from Greenwich Park.\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43204474896562,"sku":"9781471190551","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781471190551.jpg?v=1786021018"},{"product_id":"9781801104098","title":"Love in Old Age","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eQueen Victoria so liked the Isle of Wight \u003c\/b\u003eshe built a royal residence here. Thousands of people got stoned here at music festivals in the late 1960s. And, in the very un-hippyish Covid summer of 2020, Hunter Davies and his girlfriend escaped locked-down North London for a week’s holiday on the Isle of Wight, fell in love with its sleepy charm – and ended up buying a Grade II-listed love nest in the elegant Victorian seaside resort of Ryde. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLove in Old Age \u003c\/i\u003etells the story of their first twelve months on the island. It brings together the themes of love in old age; Covid lockdown; rural escape; the anxieties of house-buying; and the history and curiosities of England’s largest and second most populous island – all bound together by Hunter Davies’s inquisitiveness about people and places, and his irrepressible and ironic sense of humour.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205593989298,"sku":"9781801104098","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781801104098_9f6ee08b-0182-4c48-acc8-0dd48d0d39df.jpg?v=1786026589"},{"product_id":"9781838934804","title":"The Heath","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn engaging portrait of Hampstead Heath – a place rich not just in natural wonders but in history and monuments, emotions and memories, people and places. \u003cbr\u003e'I enjoyed every inch of the way, from Parliament Hill to the Pergola... A late-life little masterpiece' \u003cb\u003eFerdinand Mount\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A love letter, both to the Heath and to his late wife' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eIslington Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'An affectionate book which blends personal anecdote, history and interviews' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHam \u0026amp; High\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe eight hundred acres of Hampstead Heath lie just four miles from central London; and yet unlike the manicured inner-city parks, it feels like the countryside: it has hills and lakes, wild spots and tame spots.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHunter Davies has lived within a stone's throw of Hampstead Heath for more than sixty years and has walked on it nearly every day of his London life. For him, it is not just a place of recreation and relaxation but also a treasure-house of memories and emotions. In \u003ci\u003eThe Heath\u003c\/i\u003e, he visits all parts of this, the largest area of common land in Britain's capital city: from Kenwood House to the Vale of Health, from Parliament Hill to Boudicca's Mound, and from the Ladies Bathing Pond to the fabulous pergola. As he walks, Davies talks to the diverse array of individuals who frequent the Heath: regulars; visitors; dog walkers; stall holders at the weekly farmer's market; famous faces having their morning stroll; twenty-first-century hippies spreading peace, love and happiness.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205683970226,"sku":"9781838934804","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781838934804.jpg?v=1786028164"},{"product_id":"9781837931033","title":"Letters to Margaret","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Warm, revelatory and moving' – \u003ci\u003eThe New Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e's Books of the Year, 2024\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the end of almost every day of their fifty-five years of married life, the publicity-shy author Margaret Forster would ask her naturally gregarious and outgoing husband Hunter Davies to describe to her the highlights of his working day spent in the worlds of journalism and publishing. In the six years that have elapsed since Margaret’s death, Hunter has continued these conversations with his wife, regaling her with accounts of the events and developments in his life – domestic, social, romantic, book-related, health-related and others – through a sequence of ‘Letters to Margaret’.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhether recounting adventures in online dating, the pleasures and pitfalls of buying a new house by the seaside, the trauma of major operations on his heart and gall bladder, a chance encounter at a book-signing session that led to a new romantic attachment, or a visit to A\u0026amp;E when he was supposed to be watching the World Cup final, these twenty-three letters weave together strands of confession, self-mockery, anecdote and touching remembrance of married happiness with Margaret.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLetters to Margaret \u003c\/i\u003ereveals Hunter Davies raging happily against the dying of the light in his late eighties, and seeking consolation for life’s frustrations and disappointments through a sustained conversation with the woman he shared his life with for more than half a century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":55897660719477,"sku":"9781837931033","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781837931033.jpg?v=1792599285"},{"product_id":"9781471153419","title":"The Co-Op's Got Bananas","description":"\u003cb\u003eA poignant and very personal childhood memoir of growing up in Cumbria during the Second World War and into the 1950s, from columnist Hunter Davies\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Despite the \u003cb\u003estruggle \u003c\/b\u003eto make ends meet during the tough years of \u003cb\u003ewarfare\u003c\/b\u003e in the 1940s and \u003cb\u003erationing\u003c\/b\u003e persisting until the early 1950s, life could still be sweet. Especially if you were a young boy, playing \u003cb\u003efootball \u003c\/b\u003ewith your pals, saving up to go to the\u003cb\u003e movies\u003c\/b\u003e at the weekend, and being captivated by the latest escapade of \u003cb\u003eDick Barton \u003c\/b\u003eon the radio.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Chocolate might be scarce, and \u003cb\u003ebananas would be a pipe dream\u003c\/b\u003e, but you could still have fun. In an \u003cb\u003eexcellent social memoir\u003c\/b\u003e from one of the UK's premier columnists over the past five decades, \u003cb\u003eHunter Davies captures this period beautifully\u003c\/b\u003e. His memoir of growing up in \u003cb\u003epost-war North of England\u003c\/b\u003e from 1945 onwards, amid the immense damage wrought by the \u003cb\u003eSecond World War\u003c\/b\u003e, and the dreariness of life on rationing, very little luxuries and an archaic educational system, should be one that will resonate with thousands of readers across Britain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In the same vein as Robert Douglas's \u003ci\u003eNight Song of the Last Tram \u003c\/i\u003eand Alan Johnson's \u003ci\u003eThis Boy\u003c\/i\u003e, Hunter's memories of a \u003cb\u003ehard life laced \u003c\/b\u003ewith \u003cb\u003eglorious moments of colour \u003c\/b\u003eand\u003cb\u003e emotion\u003c\/b\u003e will certainly strike a vein with his generation.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56299730993525,"sku":"9781471153419","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781471153419_851b7daa-f5d5-404a-8a64-509696ceff6c.jpg?v=1786020993"},{"product_id":"9781471161315","title":"A Life in the Day","description":"Hunter Davies’ childhood lived amongst the post-war dirt and grime of Carlisle was immediately hailed as a classic memoir from one of Britain’s foremost columnists of the past half century. \u003ci\u003eThe Co-op’s Got Bananas!\u003c\/i\u003e left our protagonist at the cusp of working for one of the world’s greatest newspapers – \u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e. In this much-anticipated sequel, Hunter now looks back across five decades of successful writing to reflect on his colourful memories of the living in London during the height of the Swinging Sixties, becoming editor of Britain’s first colour weekend supplement \u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Times \u003c\/i\u003emagazine; befriending the Beatles; and interviewing (and partying with) the biggest names in television, film and theatre of the day.\u003cbr\u003e   Hunter brings the story full circle to reflect on his years spent with the love of his life – the bestselling writer Margaret Forster, who sadly passed away in February 2016. This will not only be a colourful and enjoyable memoir of what it was like to be at the epicentre of Britain’s artistic heart, but also an emotional, heart-felt tribute to family, friends and colleagues. For those captivated by \u003ci\u003eThe Co-op’s Got Bananas!,\u003c\/i\u003e this sequel is a must read.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56300413878645,"sku":"9781471161315","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781471161315_a9c216c2-7493-4ebd-8cb6-6c1332fcccf3.jpg?v=1786020395"},{"product_id":"9781780225036","title":"The John Lennon Letters","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA lifetime of letters, collected for the first time, from the legendary The Beatles musician and songwriter John Lennon\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJohn Lennon is one of the world's greatest-ever song writers, creator of 'Help!', 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds', 'Imagine' and dozens more. Now, his letters have been collected and published, illuminating as never before the intimate side of a private genius.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHunter Davies, author of the only authorised biography of The Beatles, has tracked down almost three hundred of Lennon's letters and postcards - to relations, friends, fans, strangers, lovers and even to the laundry. Some of the letters are tender, informative, funny, angry and abusive, and some are simply heart-breaking - from his earliest surviving thank-you note, written when he was ten, to his last scribbled autograph given on 8 December 1980, the day he was shot, aged forty.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56303234711925,"sku":"9781780225036","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781780225036_58439e4d-b750-4845-a108-71d1e6775369.jpg?v=1786024220"},{"product_id":"9781840182422","title":"The Glory Game","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen the first edition of \u003ci\u003eThe Glory Game\u003c\/i\u003e was published in 1972, it was instantly hailed as the most insightful book about the life of a football club ever published. Hunter Davies was, and still is, the only author ever to be allowed into the inner sanctum of a top-level football team (Tottenham Hotspur) and his pen spared nothing and no one. 'His accuracy is sufficiently uncanny to be embarrassing,' wrote Bob Wilson in the \u003ci\u003eNew Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e. 'Brilliant, vicious, unmerciful,' wrote \u003ci\u003eThe Sun\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Davies spent a whole season with the team, training with them, visiting the players' homes and witnessing the dressing-room confrontations. In the modern era of painstaking media management and tight security, no sportswriter will ever again be granted such unprecedented access. While some features of the game have changed beyond all recognition - notably the all-consuming role that money now plays - inside every club the dramas and tensions revealed by Davies remain, making the book a timeless classic and securing its position as one of the best books about football ever written.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307703349621,"sku":"9781840182422","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781840182422_cc52e8a9-1aa0-49ec-a655-7075ffbdf78a.jpg?v=1786028232"},{"product_id":"9781837050314","title":"George Stephenson","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eGeorge Stephenson\u003c\/em\u003e is the ultimate selfmade man: born in the pit village of Wylam, near Newcastle, and skipping any education to start work, his inventions would change the very nature of the world.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the moment he began work in the pit at the tender age of ten, he showed a natural talent for mending and inventing machines, slowly rising to become the colliery’s resident engineer. However, he struggled to break through the class prejudices of the time; indeed, Sir Humphrey Davy, later President of the Royal Society, considered Stephenson (then an unknown pitman) ‘a thief and not a clever thief’. This early battle was only one of many that Stephenson waged against the establishment.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEven so, Stephenson went on to build the world’s first public railways, the Stockton and Darlington in 1825 and the Liverpool–Manchester in 1830. Much is known of these achievements and of his famous creation, Rocket, yet little is known of the man himself. In George Stephenson a colourful portrait is painted of the self-taught and often testy Geordie, whose Victorian invention is now the backbone of every nation on the planet.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307872563573,"sku":"9781837050314","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781837050314_e7e2857d-5218-4769-a2f2-f590f886608b.jpg?v=1786034611"},{"product_id":"the-beatles-book","title":"The Beatles Book","description":"THE BEATLES BOOK is the ultimate authority on the fab four. \u003cp\u003eHunter Davies, the only ever authorised biographer of the group,  brings together three eminent Beatles experts to compile an invaluable and essential guide. Divided into four sections – People, Songs, Places and Broadcast \u0026amp; Cinema – \u003ci\u003eThe Beatles Book\u003c\/i\u003e  covers every element of the band’s history and brings every influence that shaped the incredible Beatles phenomenon vividly to life. Hunter and his team have also rated entries to show how important, influential or meaningful that characteristic was in the history of their lives and creations.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIllustrated with material from Hunter's remarkable private collection of personal artefacts and memorabilia, this compendium is an beautiful, insightful and entertaining treasure for any Beatles fan.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57466521649525,"sku":"9780091958633","price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780091958633.jpg?v=1785654579"},{"product_id":"wainwright","title":"Wainwright","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe classic biography of Alfred Wainwright.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlfred Wainwright's unique hand-drawn and hand-written PICTORIAL GUIDES TO THE LAKELAND FELLS have been an inspiration to walkers for over forty years.  Yet despite many bestselling books and three television series, Wainwright remained an intensely private person. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith full access to Alfred Wainwright's private letters and unpublished material, Hunter Davies reveals a man more passionate, witty and generous than readers of his guides have come to expect. His biography throws a new and surprising light on a man who has been an enigmatic and misunderstood person.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57481512518005,"sku":"9780752848525","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780752848525.jpg?v=1786089779"},{"product_id":"get-back","title":"Get Back","description":"‘They did not seem arrogant or entitled. I didn’t see them bossing around their staff or being horrid to studio assistants. But they did worry if this was all there was. All this fame and fortune, was it really all that great? The world saw them as an overnight success, who had come from nowhere. But they knew from whence they had come. Perhaps that’s what kept them grounded.’ Hunter Davies, the only authorised biographer of The Beatles, revisits his treasured 39 notebooks filled with remarkable interviews to explore the lives of John, Paul, George and Ringo as they were growing up and coming of age.   Drawing on a wealth of never-before-revealed, intimate material, and his own experience as a boy of similar age from a working-class Northern background, Hunter now tells the story of where they came from, what it was like, how it shaped their hopes and aspirations.   Hunter spent three years with The Beatles, visiting all their homes, and each of them visiting his. He also spent time with their parents, school friends, teachers, girlfriends, members of the Quarry Men and many others from their inner circle. Their conversations often harked back to the War, with memories of air-raid shelters and rationing, to the NHS coming in, the eleven plus and grammar schools, and council house life in the 1950s.   We all know what they became famous for, but here Hunter takes us into the much more private world of their formative years, for this colourful, richly detailed, personal portrait of the young boys who were destined to come together and revolutionise music and pop culture.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57505058586997,"sku":"9781529977417","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781529977417.jpg?v=1786954018"},{"product_id":"the-beatles-lyrics","title":"The Beatles Lyrics","description":"Many books have appeared over the years about the Beatles lyrics -- about the words of those songs which the whole world knows and sings, and will sing for ever, as long as we have the breath to hum the tunes. But no one has ever tried to track down and publish the original versions of the classic songs -- showing the words in the Beatles' own handwriting, how they first wrote them, how they scribbled them down on pieces of paper or backs of envelopes, with all the crossings out and changes.  By revealing and publishing these original manuscripts for the first time we gain a unique insight into the creative process of Lennon and McCartney, how they did it, what they were thinking, how they changed their minds, and then came up with the words we now all know.  Such a book has never been published, firstly because of copyright reasons, with ownership divided between Michael Jackson and Sony, and secondly because no one has been able to track them all down. The author of the only authorised biography of The Beatles, Hunter Davies, has sought out nearly one hundred Beatles lyrics.   His expert introduction describes the creativity of the greatest ever rock band -- then he lists and illustrates each song, in chronological order, putting each song in context: what the Beatles were doing at the time, how and when they came to write and then record it, how the original version differs from the final one. The wonder is that almost every Beatles song has a great story behind it -- whether it is 'In My Life', 'For No One', 'Yesterday', 'Eleanor Rigby', or 'Yellow Submarine'.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57507705487733,"sku":"9781780225463","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}]},{"product_id":"argy-bargy","title":"Argy-Bargy","description":"\u003cp\u003eHunter Davies has done lots of daft things in his long-legged life, but buying an ancient barge as an octogenarian possibly ranks as the maddest of all. The barge is a whopper, 30 metres long, a Dutch Barge, built in 1899, once used for carrying grain along the canals of Holland and Belgium. It has long been converted into a modern and comfortable living space, but still has the original wheel house and ancient crane for lifting goods off and on. He bought it on an impulse, with the view to enjoying an adventure with his partner, Miranda, but what has followed has been more than an experience, it has been a journey of vast ups and downs and a whole a new way of life, with new people and customs, about which he previously knew nothing. This is the story of their first year on the barge.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57680308339061,"sku":"9781837051779","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-hunter-davies.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}