Towards Abbey Road: Growing Up With The Beatles

'The spring of 1965 marked the beginning of teenage angst for me. Love was in the air. From the innocence of cataloguing bus numbers or stamp collecting I was pitched into the heady world of sex. I'd been able to partially put this stuff on the back burner after the summer of Profumo, but by the second term of my third year at the grammar school, everyone was copping off. Or at least that's what it seemed like'. In this keenly observed account of his coming of age in the 1960s, Martin Phillips subjects his passion for the era to his enquiring contemporary viewpoint and retrospective insight. The music of the time provides the background to this engagingly humorous memoir. The Beatles, The Stones, Cream, Hendrix and Pink Floyd: they're all in here. They mingle with a cast of young Londoners who would change the world - or so they hoped."This made me laugh a lot and there's so much that rings true, sometimes horribly so. I think that what it has captured very well is the remarkable nature of those years." Chris Taylor "This has an unquestionably broad appeal - obviously for those of us of an age with that shared experience, but also younger Beatles fans. The weaving of the personal into the songs and the time is perfect." Mike Ferguson"Very funny - and very moving at the end. I loved the "10 point scale" with girls. And the bubble gum cards. "Hello. Friend. Thanks. Goodbye" Forever ingrained on my mind as the only translations we'd ever need when travelling abroad - and the only reason I'd heard of Bolivia and Ecuador " Alison ClinkMartin Phillips has published a book of short stories - Listening To Coloured Dreams - and his story A Nice Bunch of Guys won first prize in category at the 2020 Yeovil Literary Festival.