The Cheltenham Literary Festival is the Glastonbury of the book world and this year I got to mix music and literature when I interviewed Ian Leslie on his fab best-seller about the greatest song writing partnership in history.

The Beatles played the Odeon in Cheltenham on November 1st 1963 as the first date of a huge UK tour. It was a significant show because the Daily Mirror reported the hordes of screaming, crying girls on it’s front page next day under the headline ‘Beatlemania’. It was the first time the term had been used but not the last. Four months later they were conquering America with Beatles records occupying the top five positions in the Billboard 100.

Before interviewing Ian I asked how many of the packed Cheltenham audience had been at the Odeon all those years ago. I expected a couple of arms to be raised, not the forest of hands that went up.

Even if you’ve read all the hundreds of books about the Beatles, you’ll be mesmerised by this tender analysis of the relationship at the heart of the cultural sensation of our age.