I picked up Julian Lennon by Kalia Lulow in early 1986. A hastily-prepared biography to capitalize on Julian Lennon’s fame, I had several instances of déjà vu while I was reading this as so many passages were word-for-word quotes that I had just read in John Lennon / Julian Lennon. I do understand that fluffy biographies like this should not be taken so seriously, but I was turned off by the second sentence in the very first paragraph, which referred to:

“John Winston Lennon, forty, was gunned down by an assassin…”

John had changed his middle name from Winston to Ono in 1969. Lulow also confused two different George Harrison concerts, claiming that over the Christmas season in 1974 Julian attended the “big Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden”. George’s benefit Concert for Bangla Desh was in fact held in August 1971 whereas his Dark Horse Tour saw him return to Madison Square Garden in December 1974.

The end of the book focussed on Julian’s first concert tour. I saw both of his shows in Toronto on April 18 and 19, 1985. Lulow portrayed Julian as a bundle of nerves who through diligent practice with a star band managed to pull off a successful series of shows. 

I may not discard this book as every copy I have seen for sale on any of the leading antiquarian bookseller sites has it priced through the roof. It can’t be worth that much. And mine has an immaculate glossy cover. Maybe I’ll try to sell it.