Author Jude Southerland Kessler speaks up about John Lennon biography

Author Denies Rumors that Lennon Biography is Fiction

Jude Southerland Kessler- author of Shoulda Been There: a novel on the life of John Winston Lennon, is fed up with people calling her book fiction and is now publicly defending her work.

Jude Southerland Kessler has been a Beatles fan since the Fab Four came to America when she was nine years old. In 1986, she realized that a Beatles biography had never been written in the form of a documented, historical novel. So Jude took the plunge and set out to write a biographical novel series on the life of John Lennon. But she was soon met with critics who viewed her first book as fiction. Jude Kessler has now come forward to defend her work and to set the record straight about the 20+ years of extensive research that she’s put into the nine book series.

Jude Kessler began researching for her book in 1986. Her secondary research included collecting over 300 books on Lennon and the Beatles and built an extensive collection of interview CDs and DVDs, newspaper articles, over 150 magazines with informative articles on Beatles, audio tapes of interviews, and countless VHS interview tapes. She read journals, letters, and all books by Lennon to authentically capture his writing style.

From the years 1993-2000, Ms. Kessler made seven trips to Liverpool to interview many family, friends and associates of The Beatles, including: Helen Andersen, June Furlong, Bill Harry, Rod Murray, Colin Fallows, George Jardine, Dave Bennion, Sam Leach, Allan Williams, Beryl Adams, Joe and Sam Flannery, Bob Wooler, Billy May, Louise Harrison, Ruth McCartney, Roag Best, and Charlie Lennon. Other interviews have included: Eddie Porter, Bryan Biggs, Nicky Cuff, Billy J. Kramer, Dick Clark, John Trusty, Porter Thrower, Larry Kane, Sam Leach, Len Garry, Richard Langham and countless others. After collecting interviews, Kessler spent the next 5 years writing.

Sir George Martin had a hand in supplying details for Shivering Inside. “I wrote to Giles Martin in late 2009 with a question about the 6 June 1962 audition/recording session at Abbey Road,” Kessler said. “Giles immediately relayed that to his father and sent the answer on to me.”

Throughout the writing process, Ms. Kessler would routinely send her completed chapters to the people about whom they were written for correction, clarification, and further documentation. Jude explains, “Many of my ‘characters’ took their chapters and made miniscule but very important corrections. June Furlong, for example, made sure that I had her hair in a French twist with a wisp of hair falling down on the left side. Bill Harry had me move him into the front room of Ye Cracke and put him under the painting of Lord Nelson. He also had me switch his drink of choice from ale to bitters. My quest for accurate details was a huge undertaking!”

In 2005, Ms. Kessler began creating and editing a Scouse Glossary to be included in the back of Should Been There, the first book in the series on Lennon. “I had to tackle one aspect of John’s life with that ordinary biographers don’t have to face: I had to learn the intricacies of Scouse verbiage. John had to speak authentically, as did Paul, Pete, George, Ringo, and all the members of Merseyside bands. I had to learn which expressions were proper for someone from The Dingle or Toxteth (as in Ringo’s case) and which terms were used by people from Speke (like George). I spent countless hours watching tapes of Pete and The Beatles in order to pick up their gestures, expressions, and mannerisms. I watched Pete in live interviews to learn more about him. My work was painstaking, detailed, and scholarly. No stone in the investigative process was left unturned.”

“In Shoulda Been There, many of the private conversations, of course, have to be conjecture. But in Shivering Inside, most of the conversation will be footnoted. After 1961, so much of what The Beatles did and said was captured for posterity, and I’m using that information to paint a very authentic portrait of the group. One chapter (11 Feb. 1963) has over 100 footnotes, thanks to the use of actual, spoken and recorded words”, says Kessler of her upcoming release.

Shoulda Been There was released in November 2008 and covers Lennon’s life from his birth in 1940 through signing with Brian Epstein in 11 Dec 1961. Shivering Inside is due to be released on October 9, 2010 and will cover Lennon’s life from December 1961 until his son Julian’s birth in April 1963.

Jude Southerland Kessler received her master's degree in English from the University of Maryland and taught at Troy State University in Alabama; she is no stranger to scholarly research. She is a highly sought after and engaged expert on the Beatles. For more information on Jude Southerland Kessler and her books, please visit: www.OnTheRockBooks.com.