John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs

John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs is a work of biographical nonfiction by Ian Leslie. Originally published by Celadon Books in 2025, John & Paul dissects the emotional, psychological, and artistic aspects of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s relationship. Throughout the text, Leslie interrogates historical myths about the international pop stars and seeks to capture the beauty and mystery of their connection. Rendered with emotional empathy and lyrical acuity, John & Paul explores the following themes: The Complexity of Creative Partnerships, The Psychological Dimensions of Fame, and The Influence of Loss and Personal Experience on an Artist’s Identity.

This guide refers to the 2025 Celadon Books hardback edition of the biography.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide include cursing, sexual content, depictions of gun violence, drug use, alcohol consumption, depression, pregnancy loss, domestic unrest, sexual violence, death, and themes of loss, grief, and mental health.

Language Note: This guide refers to John Lennon and Paul McCartney as John and Paul (as Leslie does in the biography) in the summary sections that relay their story but refers to them as Lennon and McCartney in the analytical sections that examine their life and work.

Summary

In the Prologue, Ian Leslie lays out his reasons for writing John & Paul. He argues that historical myths about John Lennon and Paul McCartney have skewed generations of Beatles’ fans into misunderstanding the icons’ bond. In John & Paul, he interrogates these myths and explores the true complexity of John and Paul’s friendship.

The two met when Paul was 15 and John was 16. Paul saw John play with his group the Quarry Men at a church event. Impressed, Paul introduced himself and showed John how to hone his guitar technique. The two formed an immediate connection and John invited him to join the Quarry Men. In the following months, the two became inseparable. They started cutting class and sneaking out to the house of John’s biological mother, Julia Lennon. (John was under the care of his aunt Mimi and uncle George because of Julia’s unpredictable lifestyle while his father, Alf Lennon, worked at sea.) John and Paul would listen to music and write their own songs while at Julia’s. One night, Julia left John at home with her boyfriend while she went to speak to Mimi. On her way home, she was hit by a car and killed. John was devastated. Leslie argues that this tragedy tightened his bond with Paul, whose mother (Mary McCartney) died eight months before the boys met.

Paul and John invited George Harrison to join their group, newly renamed the Beatles. At the time, they were playing with Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best. Their new promotor, Bruno Koschmider, secured them a stint at a Hamburg club called the Indra. The group traveled to Germany, instigating their first era in the spotlight. In Germany, they experimented with music and performing in new ways. However, when they returned to the UK, they took time away from the band. Paul even started working at the factory with his father, unsure if he should pursue music after all.

In the following years, John, Paul, and George devoted themselves to the Beatles. They hired a manager named Brian Epstein and invited Ringo Starr (formerly of the band Rory Storm and the Hurricanes) to join the band as their drummer. They recorded and released their first single “Please Please Me,” which became their first hit and was number one in the UK. They soon released an album by the same name. They quickly rose to national and international fame and were well known by the end of 1963.

In 1964, the group traveled to the US for the first time. Their first US tour incited Beatlemania abroad. Over the next two years, the Beatles continued touring and producing new music. By 1966, they decided to stop touring indefinitely. Meanwhile, tensions began to arise within the group. John and Paul’s relationship particularly underwent changes. John’s new relationship with Yoko Ono drew him away from Paul, while Paul’s relationship with Linda Eastman drew him away from John. At the same time, Leslie speculates that these relationships might have originated because the friends were trying to define themselves separately from one another.

Despite John and Paul’s frequent arguments, Leslie holds that they were always best friends. In Paul, John felt a sense of home. In John, Paul had a creative equal and a constant confidante. Leslie references footage, recordings, interviews, articles, and their friends’ reflections on John and Paul’s relationship to underscore its uncanny nature. They often stared into each other’s eyes for long periods. They had their own private language and constantly told jokes and talked about their relationship. At the same time, Leslie acknowledges that time and circumstances drew them apart.

By 1970, the Beatles’ had broken up. The split, Leslie argues, largely resulted from Paul’s frustration with Allen Klein. John insisted on hiring Klein as the group’s new manager, but Paul didn’t trust him and refused to work with him. Instead, he wanted to work with Linda’s brother, John Eastman—whom John didn’t trust. These disagreements widened the chasm between the two friends and incited a protracted period of volatile communication between them.

Over the years, however, John and Paul gradually became friends again, even if hesitantly. They wrote letters or talked by phone. They followed one another’s solo careers and were motivated by each other’s work, having formed an artistic competition at the start of their relationship. During one of Paul’s trips to Los Angeles, he reconnected with Yoko Ono and became hopeful about collaborating with John again. The two started to see each other more often, but did not ultimately renew their working partnership.

In 1980, John felt more hopeful about life, his work, and his relationship with Paul. He was working on a new album with Ono. One night after recording a new song, he took a car home and was shot and killed outside his New York apartment building. His sudden and shocking death catalyzed a global period of mourning for the artist, activist, and icon. Leslie quotes Paul as saying of John’s death that the saddest thing about losing John was never being able to fully access his friend’s soul. Leslie argues that Paul’s words prove that even he could not articulate the ineffability of his and John’s connection. The same is true of all their admirers. Distilling or simplifying their relationship is impossible, but its mystery is beautiful.