As Time Goes By

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Review ------ An authentic account of the psychedelic 60s and the Beatles from one of the coolest guys in the business. (Neil Tennant) Excellent ... As Time Goes By was the first, and remains the sharpest, memoir written by one of the Beatles' inner circle ... An elegant writer [and] industry insider companion. (Bob Stanley The Observer) What a delightful man Derek Taylor was: charming and urbane, the laconic centre at the heart of the turmoil that was the waning of the Beatles' empire, as money haemorrhaged away and friendships dissolved. This memoir, a reflective series of anecdotes written in a warmly conversational style, was first published in 1973. Now republished, the passage of time - and the passing of Taylor, who died of cancer in 1997 aged 65 - only adds to its poignancy as a fond reminiscence of a vanished era. (Mick Brown Telegraph (5*****)) Unlike most of the hots who were then establishing what we now know as the global PR industry, Taylor had one big advantage: he could write. And in the late 60s and early 70s, he snatched time to record opinions that would not quite cohere into a memoir, but still evoke his dazzling working life and the era in which it happened. In his sparse, lyrical prose style, there are echoes of Joan Didion, another writer born before the so-called Love Generation, but who wrote about its rise and fall with authority. (John Harries Guardian) Written in an exorcism of paranoia and self-reproach, and a sentimental yearning for the idyll of 1967, Taylor's anecdotal journal charts the mood-shift in the Beatles story, from 1964 to 1973, with firsthand in, and an -enlightened Mersey wit fitting the blurred madness of the times. (Mojo (****)) Exceptional [...] He imparts great wit, and it's a delight to devour the words he employs with such obvious joy [...] As Time Goes By is written from the eye of the storm by the only person there armed with the craft to convey the experience; it feels like the most indulgent privilege to join him for the trip of a lifetime. (Record Collector (*****)) Book Description ---------------- A spellbindingly insider's account of the 1960s music industry by one of the Beatles' most trusted friends.