Fab: An intimate life of Paul McCartney, By Howard Sounes

"More book have been written about the Beatles probably, than any act in show-business", writes Howard Sounes, though not by way of apology. He comprehensively brings us the life of this ex-Beatle, with a keen eye to detail.

Although there are few new revelations, the book brings it all together engagingly, from a happy childhood in a close, clanish family, to his mother's early death, his meeting with Lennon and the rest, the Beatles' early wild years (they caught the clap in Hamburg) to a solo career, Linda's death and his divorce from Heather Mills.

It is all the better for not reading like a hagiography of an extraordinary man who had an early, unshakable conviction that he would make it big.