Best Selling Books by Hunter Davies

"A fascinating, intimate glimpse into the creative process behind some of the greatest pop songs ever written." — Christian Science Monitor For the Beatles, writing songs was a process that could happen anytime—songs we all know by heart often began as a scribble on the back of an envelope or on hotel stationery. These original documents have ended up scattered across the world at museums and universities and with collectors and friends. Many have never been published before. More than 100 songs and lyrics are reproduced in The Beatles Lyrics, providing Hunter Davies a unique platform to tell the story of the music. The intimacy of these reproductions—there are sections crossed out and rewritten, and words tossed into the final recordings that were never written down—ensures that The Beatles Lyrics will be a treasure for musicians, scholars, and fans everywhere. "Rich with insider authenticity . . . Gives us a glimpse into genius." — Wall Street Journal

Hunter Davies, the only ever authorised biographer of the group, has produced the essential Beatles guide. Divided into four sections – People, Songs, Places and Broadcast and Cinema – it covers all elements of the band’s history and vividly brings to live every influence that shaped them. Illustrated with material from Hunter''s remarkable private collection of artefacts and memorabilia, this is the definitive Beatles treasure.

A wryly humorous memoir from Hunter Davies, as he falls in love again in his eighties and chronicles the first year of living with his new girlfriend in their cottage on the Isle of Wight. King Charles I was imprisoned here; Queen Victoria so liked its mild climate and coastal scenery that she built an Italianate house here (and later expired in it); hundreds of thousands of people got stoned here at music festivals in the 1960s summers of love. And, in the very un-hippyish summer of 2020, Hunter and Claire 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 2-listed love nest in the elegant Victorian seaside resort of Ryde. Love in Old Age tells the story of their first twelve months on the island. It is a journey of discovery to a forgotten corner of England; an exploration of the attraction of meeting new people and new places in old age, and a celebration of flat sandy beaches. 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 insatiable curiosity about people and places, and his irrepressible and ironic sense of humour.

The classic biography of Alfred Wainwright. Alfred 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. With 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.

A "thorough and painstaking" biography of the nineteenth-century poet who helped launch the Romantic movement in England ( The Daily Mail, UK). Together with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth pioneered a new poetic form that celebrated nature and prized freedom, emotion, and individuality. The force of his aesthetic and intellectual influence was pervasive, reaching from music and art to science, politics, and history. Drawing on the published letters and diaries of Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, and of their contemporaries Coleridge and Southey, this full-length biography of the poet''s life and times also draws on the author''s own knowledge of the Lake District, which was central to Wordsworth''s life. Hunter Davies discusses Wordsworth''s much-debated relationship with his sister; tells the story of his affair with Annette Vallon; and describes in detail William''s life with his wife, Mary. Readers will also learn of the poet''s family life at Grasmere and Rydal, his political activities, his formative meeting with Coleridge in the West Country, and his other travels.

''Warm, revelatory and moving'' – The New Statesman''s Books of the Year, 2024 At 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''. Whether 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&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. Letters to Margaret reveals 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.

Behind every ritual of every day - waking up from a dream, calling the dog in, going for a drink after work - there are figures which detail the most common dreams, the most popular names for male and female dogs and the preferred after-work activities of various people.

Hunter Davies''s first major interview was with John Masefield for The Sunday Times in 1963. In the years since, he has interviewed many of the most famous people that the late twentieth century has to offer, from James Baldwin and Orson Welles to Jack Nicholson and Salman Rushdie. in an eclectic and highly readable selection, we learn that Noel Coward enjoyed watching operations and considered himself ''about as decadent as a suet pudding'', David Hockney dyed his hair because ''blonds have more fun'', and Anthony Burgess had yet to touch the body of an Englishwoman. Christy Brown concedes ''I''m just a run-of-the-mill genius'', while Alan Sugar admits ''I''m a miserable sod''. The book opens with a specially written introduction in which Hunter Davies explores the art of the Celebrity Interview, and turns the tables to interview fellow practitioners, such as Lynn Barber and Angela Lambert.

George Stephenson 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. From 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. Even 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.

Hunter Davies is one of the most well-known and respected sports writers in the country. His most famous work, "The Glory Game", is a footballing classic still in print some 30 years since its original publication. Hunter is also a successful novelist and distinguished biographer, whose subjects include The Beatles, Dwight Yorke and Paul Gascoigne. Now, though, he describes his own extraordinary life, from growing up on a Carlisle council estate in the 1950s and his student days at Durham to his introduction to Fleet Street, his enduring obsession with football and memorabilia, and the many fascinating characters he has met, interviewed and written about over the last 40 years. It is also the intimate portrait of his marriage to teenage sweetheart Margaret Forster, herself a well-known novelist. Full of wonderful observations, warm humour and colourful anecdote - it is a memoir to treasure.

Small, impetuous, and longing for attention, Flossie crept into the eerie bedroom of Bella, her fascinating teenage sister. Somewhere in the darkness, nestling within shadow, hung an old coat—a wondrous fur coat: rich, wild, and the waxy colour of autumn chestnuts. Where the fur comes from is a mystery, but once Flossie slips into its bear-like-skin, nothing will ever be the same again...

''I am fascinated by people turning their daft dreams into a reality. How did they do it and why?'' Driven by his own passion for collecting Hunter Davies has packed his notepad and set off in search of Britain''s maddest museums. As he explores these hidden gems he soon discovers that they are everywhere and that they celebrate just about everything, from lawnmowers in Southport to pencils in Keswick. But as Hunter travels up and down the country he comes to realise that it isn''t only the collections that are fascinating, it''s also the people who have put them together. Whether they''re a man who loves his Heinz so much he''s changed his name to Captain Beany or a kleptomaniac Vintage Radio buff, these eccentric collectors are Britain''s finest and could live in no other country in the world. Once you discover these museums and get to know their curators, Great Britain won''t look quite the same again...

An engaging portrait of Hampstead Heath – a place rich not just in natural wonders but in history and monuments, emotions and memories, people and places. ''I enjoyed every inch of the way, from Parliament Hill to the Pergola... A late-life little masterpiece'' Ferdinand Mount ''A love letter, both to the Heath and to his late wife'' Islington Tribune ''An affectionate book which blends personal anecdote, history and interviews'' Ham & High The 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. Hunter 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 The Heath, 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.

''I don''t know any tract of land in which in so narrow a compass may be found an equal variety of sublime and beautiful features''. So said the poet Wordsworth of England''s Lake District, an area as rich in cultural associations as it is in beautiful scenery. Hunter Davies, who has spent every summer in the Lake District for nearly half a century, takes the reader on an engaging, informative and affectionate tour of the lakes, fells, traditions, denizens and history of England''s most popular tourist destination. From the first discovery of Lakeland as a tourist destination in the 18th century, to the tale of the Maid of Buttermere, to the poet Coleridge''s ascent of Scafell Pike in 1802, to such enduring local traditions as Cumberland wrestling and hound trailing, Hunter Davies brings England''s Lake District memorably and informatively to life.

Alfred Wainwright, the legendary fell walker and author of the incomparable and unique Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells was also a fluent, eloquent and diligent correspondent. Writing to old friends and to the many new ones gained through his books, and to his love, and later second wife, Betty, his letters display a much warmer, more sensitive and emotional character than his gruff popular image would suggest. Hunter Davies, Wainwright''s biographer, has here collected a selection of letters that range from his early years in Blackburn to his established position as Borough Treasurer in Kendal, and cover all aspects of his professional and personal life, as well as the voluminous correspondence that was a consequence of writing and publishing the Pictorial Guides. The latter vividly illuminate many aspects of that turbulent but ultimately triumphant process, while the former present a picture of a dedicated public servant whose personal life had been deeply unhappy until late in life he found unexpected but transcendent love and happiness. In turn business-like and comic, wonderfully well informed and remarkably innocent, deeply moving and yet tough-minded, the letters present a vivid and unforgettable picture of one of the great but eccentric creative geniuses of the twentieth century.