Includes bibliographical references.

John Updike compared them to 'the sun coming out on Easter morning'. Bob Dylan introduced them to drugs. Muhammad Ali called them 'little sissies'. No one remained unaffected by the music of the Beatles. As Queen Elizabeth II observed on her golden wedding anniversary, 'Think what we would have missed if we had never heard the Beatles.' This book traces the chance fusion of the four key elements that made of the Beatles: fire (John), water (Paul), air (George) and earth (Ringo). It also tells the bizarre and often unfortunate tales of the disparate and colourful people within their orbit, among them Yoko Ono, the Maharishi, Aunt Mimi, the con artist Magic Alex, their psychedelic dentist John Riley and their failed nemesis, Det. Sgt Norman Pilcher.