I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: The short and gilded life of Tara Browne, the man who inspired The Beatles' greatest song

Few individuals navigated the popular currents of the sixties quite like Tara Browne. As one of Swinging London's most prominent figures, he lived intensely, died tragically young, and found everlasting fame immortalised in the opening lines of 'A Day in the Life' – a song many critics consider The Beatles' finest. But who exactly was John Lennon's "lucky man who made the grade and then blew his mind out in a car"?

Author Paul Howard has meticulously reconstructed the extraordinary story of a young Irishman who perfectly embodied the spirit of his era. He was a racing car driver, a Vogue model, a friend to The Rolling Stones, a style icon, the son of a peer, heir to a Guinness fortune, and the individual who introduced Paul McCartney to LSD. I Read the News Today, Oh Boy chronicles the life of a child born into Ireland's diminishing aristocracy, whose early years were spent in an ancient castle in County Mayo, and who arrived in London just as it was transforming into the planet's most exhilarating city. The Beatles and the Stones were on the cusp of conquering America, Carnaby Street was dictating global style trends, and in the West End, a new spirit of classlessness saw rich and poor mingling freely. Among the youth, there was a burgeoning conviction that they could change the world, and no one captured the fleeting promise of London's sixties better than Tara Browne. The book also includes a sixteen-page section of stunning colour photographs.