The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present

The Sunday Times bestseller and Waterstones Book of the Year, now available in paperback. 'Paul McCartney says this is as close as he will get to an autobiography and no wonder - his life is in every line of these songs... pure joy,' declared the Sunday Times as its Book of the Year. This edition features seven additional songs: 'Bluebird,' 'Day Tripper,' 'English Tea,' 'Every Night,' 'Hello, Goodbye,' 'Magical Mystery Tour,' and 'Step Inside Love.'

Spanning seven decades – from his early Liverpool days, through the historic decade of The Beatles, to Wings and his extensive solo career – Paul McCartney's The Lyrics has revolutionised how artists write about music. It pairs the definitive texts of 161 songs with intimate, autobiographical commentaries on McCartney's life and music. Arranged alphabetically, these commentaries reveal the diverse circumstances in which the songs were penned, how they ultimately came into being, and the remarkable – often ordinary – people and places that provided inspiration. Dozens of vignettes vividly recreate the working-class Liverpool of McCartney's youth, where delivery boys ran parcels on docks, as depicted in 'On My Way to Work,' and elderly ladies in the neighbourhood inspired 'Eleanor Rigby.' McCartney also introduces us to his early literary influences, among them Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, and Allen Ginsberg, as well as Alan Durband, his beloved English teacher, and his mother, Mary, who passed away when he was just fourteen – and whose memory has infused his work ever since.

Yet, the two most powerful presences in The Lyrics after the author himself are his songwriting partner, John Lennon, and his 'Golden Earth Girl,' Linda Eastman McCartney. Here, McCartney describes how he met John at a church fete in 1957; their adventures with George Harrison and Ringo Starr in the early 1960s; and how, at the end of the decade, they, and The Beatles, disbanded. Thus began a second act of now more than fifty years, with Linda and family life as driving forces – inspiring songs from 'Maybe I'm Amazed,' written just after the breakup of The Beatles, to the 2012 ballad 'My Valentine,' addressed to McCartney's wife and partner, Nancy Shevell McCartney.

Edited and introduced by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, and enhanced by over a hundred images from McCartney's personal archives – including handwritten texts, mementos, and photographs – along with seven new song commentaries, The Lyrics is a book for the ages, and the definitive literary and visual record of one of the greatest songwriters of all time.