John Winston Lennon (John Lennon) was a man made up of a very complex nature, full of contradictions: lots of aggressiveness, a cutting tongue, burning wit, determined to go his own way no matter what; but on the other hand; also gentle, generous and sometimes very sentimental. Alot of his complexity stems from his troubled and insecure early years.
Julia, John's mother, was a movie theatre usherette. His father Alfred, also known as Fred, was a ship's steward. Soon, the two would meet and get married. Within months of their wedding, Fred would go back to sea, and despite writing fairly regularly at first, and sending money back, the continued absences ultimately strained the marriage.
John Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, while his father was at sea. Fred's leaves to the seas increasingly became more and more erratic, and his letters less and less frequent. Julia, undetermined to sit and wait at home for Fred to come back from the seas, had a brief affair, that produced a daugther that was quickly adopted. Soon afterwards, she met and fell in love with John Bobby Dykins, a hotel waiter. She soon moved into his small apartment with her son.
Julia's eldest sister Mimi, as well as the family, was horrified that her sister was still married to Fred, so Mimi decided to take little John away. The social services department became involved, and John was off to Mendips, to the home of his aunt Mimi and husband George on Menlove Avenue, Woolton.
Seemed like John's life would begin to settle down, but however in July 1946, Fred Lennon appeared again, persuading Mimi to let him take John to Blackpool for the day. Fred's plan actually was to take John to New Zealand to start a new life, but Julia came rushing after them. The five-year old John could see that his parents were arguing as to who would have him, and then Fred asked John to choose who he wanted to live with. He contemplated the situation-John loved his mother but wanted his father around. At first John chose Fred, but when Julia left, he ran to her in tears. Julia carried him back to her sister's house. Even tho his aunt Mimi was a strict disciplinarian, she adored John since he was born and his uncle liked having a surrogate son. John liked playing with his uncle George, who also gave him encouragement and also bailed him out of trouble.
When John started school, he did well and stayed out of trouble at first. But when he turned eleven and started going to Quarry Bank, that's when the problems began. Quarry Bank was much more authoritative, and John decided that he was not going to respect the teachers. John was very near-sighted and hated wearing his glasses so he usually couldn't see the blackboard. Although John was obviously very bright, he eventually lost interest in his lessons and began to skip school, swearing and smoking. His grades ultimately dropped and he also had a reputation of being a trouble-maker.
John began to see his mother Julia more. Since his mother was very different from his serious aunty, his mum was headstrong, always smiling, looked down on authority and loved practical jokes. Julia could play the banjo a little and taught her son John a few chords. Encouraged by his mother, but discouraged by his aunt who could see no future in it, John became seriously interested in music. He also started his own skiffle group, first called: The Blackjacks, but would soon be renamed: The Quarry Men. The Beatles were to be formed from these humble beginnings which included members of the Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. (they would eventually contribute to writing beatles songs) John Lennon: the man, the myth, the legend!