Financial Times Europe - 04.04.2020 - 05.04.2020

8 ★ FT Weekend 4 April/5 April 2020

Books

T

phy ofThe Beatles, by the

journalist Hunter Davies,

was published in 1968.

According to Davies,his

publisher worried that it was already

too latefor a book,frettingthat“the

bubble’s going to burst... we know eve-

rything that we could possibly want to

know about The Beatles, and they’ll dis-

appear soon.”

Davies’s publisher, Heinemann,

wasn’t completely clueless. The Beatles

were indeedabout todisappear: their

break-up lay just two years away in

1970. But public interest didn’t disap-
      pear withthem.
      Over the past 50 years, there has been
      a vast outpouring ofBeatles books. Bio-
      graphies, memoirs, music studies, cul-
      tural histories and reference works; hos-
      tile hatchet jobs, muckraking tell-alls
      andsycophantic suck-ups; goodbooks,
      bad books, serious books, jokey books
      and bizarre books. Rather than burst-
      ing, thebubblehas swollen into a pub-
      lishing industry.
      Craig Brown’sOneTwoThreeFourisits
      latest addition. An account ofthe band’s
      lifetime told in 150 short chapters, it is
      not based on new research; instead, the
      British journalist has, in his cheerful
      admission, “plundered” and “raided”
      the millions ofwords already written
      about the Fab Four. Sources rangefrom
      pukka authorities such as Davies’s bio-
      graphy to a 2019 curio calledPlastic
      Macca,whichpurports to showhow
      PaulMcCartneydiedandwas replaced
      byadoppelgänger.
      The narrative isbroadlychronologi-
      cal, startingon the terraces ofpostwar
      Liverpool and endingwithfourjaded

superstars who couldn’t bear to be in the

same room. Thisepic butfamiliar story

is deliveredinbite-sizechunks. Some

are whimsical, such as a selection offan

lettersfrom the early days ofBeatle-

mania (“You know you have plenty of

hair, so you can spare one lock eachfor

me”). Others revisit celebrated episodes

from the band’s history, like their first

live US television appearance onTheEd

SullivanShowin 1964 or their London

rooftop concert in 1969.

Brown himselfmakes the odd appear-

ance, going on Beatles tours ofLiverpool

and Hamburg or reminiscing about lis-

tening toTheWhiteAlbumin 1968 asa

pupilat a Catholicboarding school.A

parodist who writes for the satirical

magazine Private Eye, he has an amused

eyeforfoibles and odd details. Ringo, we

learn, is Japanese for apple; Brigitte Bar-

dot’s admirationfor Lennon evaporated

after meetingthe LSD-dosed singer at

herLondonhotel.FieldMarshalMont-

gomery was thefirst person to mention

the bandintheHouses ofParliament

while arguingfor the return ofnational

military service in 1963. Bringingback

conscription“may even result in The

Beatles havingtoget their hair cut”,

Monty quipped.

loops andsamples inRevolver’s“Tomor-

row Never Knows” is hardly mentioned,

while a less significant work of experi-

mentalism, Lennon’s sound collage

“Revolution 9”,gets a chapter of its own.

It is duly derided as“a cacophony of

meaningless jabber and screeches”.

Yet with its eyefor curious encoun-

ters, the book does better at registering

the band’s social impact on 1960s Brit-

ain. Arriving at the end ofempire, they

symbolised the emergence of a new, less

deferential nation.The land ofmon-

archsandcastlesdiscoveredan unex-

pected aptitude for popular culture.

Over halfa century later, The Beatles

are part ofBritish national identity.

Brown begins his book with a guided

visit to Lennon’s and McCartney’s child-

hoodhomes,now among the National

Trust’s array of heritage properties.

Such institutionalisation might seem

jarringfor a band held to emblematise

thebirthofmodern Britain.ButOneTwo

ThreeFourshows that official acceptance

began almost withtheirfirst success.

In 1963, The Times’ chief music critic

William Mannfelt moved to praise

“This Boy”for its“chains ofpandiatonic

clusters”. The following year, the Tory

prime minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home

called The Beatles“our best exports”.

Princess Margaret, subject of Brown’s

prizewinning previous bookMa’amDar-

ling,makes severalappearances in this

one, including refusing to help George

Harrison overturn a drugs bust. Perhaps

she hadfound out Lennon’s nickname

for her, “Priceless Margarine”.

The Beatles’ambivalent relationship

withroyalty sums up their complicated

links to the “Establishment”. In 1968,

they sent a chauffeur-driven car to

Buckingham Palace with thefirstfour

singles released by their Apple label.

“Her Majesty is greatly touched by this

kind thoughtfrom The Beatles,”replied

alady-in-waiting. A year later, Lennon

dispatched anothercar to the palace to

returntheMBE hehad beenawardedin

1 965.“I think the Establishment bought

The Beatles with it,”he said. The topic is

almostwortha bookinitself—slen-

dererthanOneTwoThreeFour,tobe

sure, but more purposeful.

LudovicHunter-Tilneyis

theFT’spopmusiccritic

OneTwoThree

Four:The

BeatlesinTime

byCraigBrown

Fourth Estate £18.99

656 pages

Workmen repaint the Abbey Road crossing made famous by The Beatles during London’s lockdown— Getty Images

Tickettowrite

CraigBrown’shistoryofTheBeatlesisrichinanecdoteandamusing

detail—butshortonoriginalinsights,writesLudovicHunter-Tilney

Starsandgripes

AlivelypolemicsuggeststhatChinawillsoonusurp

theUSastheworld’shegemon,writesJohnThornhill

K

ishore Mahbubanihas

longfilled a convenient

slot on the international

conference circuit

(when there was such a

thing) as the straight-talking

Asian fond of speaking unwelcome

truths to westerners.

True toform,HasChinaWon?is

certain to antagonise andeven

outrage American readers. But

that is a goodthing. For above all,it

will force them to confront the

unsettling probability that China

will this century usurpthe USas

the world’s hegemon.

In Mahbubani’s telling, written

before coronavirus struck, the US

ruling classes thinktheirrivalry

withChinaisarerunofthecold

war with the Soviet Union — and

theyknowhow that movie ended.

It is surely only a matter of time

and political gravity before the

liberty-loving,free-market super-

power sees off the latest uppity

communist dictatorship.

Mahbubani picksuponthat

cold war analogy. But this time, he

argues, the roles are reversed: the

US is the inflexible, ideological,

systemically challenged super-

power, while China is the adapt-

able, pragmatic andstrategically

smart rival. “America is behaving

like the Soviet Union, and China is

behavinglike America,”he writes.

Like an overzealous proctolo-

gist, Mahbubani probes America’s

most sensitive parts. In spite ofthe

increasingly bellicose noises com-

ing out ofWashington, the US has

failed to develop any coherent

strategy to deal with a resurgent

China, he argues. That is in glaring

contrast withthe patient strategy

of containment articulated by the

USdiplomat George Kennan in

1 946 at the start ofthe cold war.

Mahbubani gives short shrift to

America’s marginalised modern-

daydiplomats: thereare,asthe

former defence secretary Robert

Gates observed, more members of

military marchingbandsthan US

foreign service personnel.

Theformer Singaporean diplo-

mat adds that US politics has been

capturedbyashort-sightedpluto-

cracy that wouldnot survivelong

iftheForeign Corrupt Practices

Act,criminalisingbribery ofoffi-

cialsabroad, appliedathome.

Lackingany strategicbrain, the

US has becomeover-relianton

military muscleandentangledin

perpetual wars in the Middle East.

The US may account for half ofglo-

bal defence spending, but how

much use is its military hardware

inasoftware age? US aircraft carri-

ers, which can cost up to $13bn to

build, can be easily sunk byone of

China’s DF-26 missiles, costing a

few hundred thousand dollars.

Most tellingly, the US’s social and

economic modelhas stopped

deliveringfor most of its people.

“America is the only developed

society where the average income

ofthe bottom 50 per cent ofthe

populationhas gonedown over the

past 30 years. In the same period,

theChinese peoplehave experi-

encedthe greatestimprovement in

their standard of livingever seen in

Chinese history,”he writes.

It is in the nature of a polemic to

maximise all evidence supporting

an argument andminimise every-

thingthat contradicts it. So it is

with Mahbubani: unsparing on the

US’sfailings, he glosses over China’s

manifestflaws. The Great Leap

Forward and Cultural Revolution,

in which tens ofmillions died,

merit one sentence. The current

unrest inHongKongisdismissed

as a struggle between the homeless

andrealestate tycoons.

Mahbubani isaseffusivein his

praise ofChina’s leaders as he is

damning oftheir US counterparts.

President Xi Jinping’s removal of

term limits was necessary to coun-

terfactionalism and corruption.

Hisruledelivers three public

goods to the world: restraining

Chinese nationalism; responding

to climate change; and ensuring

that China is a status quo power,

notarevolutionary one.“There is

avery strong potential that Xi Jin-

ping could provide to China the

beneficent kind ofrule provided

by a philosopher king,” he gushes.

In the end, Mahbubani ducks

the question his book’s title poses.

Despite his criticisms of the US, he

recognises its many strengths: an

individualistic culture; thebest

universities in the world; a mag-

netic attractionfor the world’s best

and brightest(including 351,00 0

Chinese students); and its strong

institutions — although Donald

Trump is workingon that.

He concludes that a“geopoliti-

cal contest betweenAmerica and

Chinais bothinevitable andavoid-

able”. Read this book to be pro-

voked, ifnot convinced.

JohnThornhillistheFT’sinnovation

editorandaformerAsiaeditor

HasChina

Won?The

Chinese

Challenge

toAmerican

Primacy

byKishore

Mahbubani

Public Affairs,

$28, 320 pages

Americanowboasts

moremembersof

militarymarching

bandsthandiplomats

G

uttingfish is a messy busi-

ness. Doingso aboard a 79ft

beamtrawlerwhile bob-

bingup anddownonthe

high seas offthe coast of

Cornwallismessierstill.Fortheinex-

perthand, emergingcoveredingooey

intestinesisalmost a dead cert.

Lamorna Ash, a 22-year-oldLon-

doner, learns this the hard way. After

eight days on board the Filadelfia, how-

ever, she is decapitatingmonkfish and

slicingopen leopard rays with a“horri-

fyingkind ofsatisfaction”. The crew

even assign her a nickname,“Ray-

mundo”, which sheaccepts withunbri-

dledpride.

Part coming-of-age memoir, part

anthropologicalstudy,Dark,Salt,Clear

glistens with deftly told snippets and

character-rich stories: about the habits

offish and the art ofcatchingthem;

about the bifurcatinglifeofsea and

shore; about“salt-licked winds”and

squawkingseabirds; and,perhaps most

poignantly, about Lamorna Ash herself,

the“emmet”or outsider, who so desper-

atelydesires tobelong.

Ashmaybeaplummy-voicedprod-

uctofStPaul’s Girls’ SchoolandOxford

university,but sheholdsher own. Day

one in her chosenfield site ofNewlyn,a

busy Cornishfishingvillageofsome

4,400 residents andfive pubs, and we

find her swept up on a boozy bar crawl.

What started out as aresearch tripfora

graduate thesis then morphs intoa

longer sojourn. In the months thatfol-

low, shegamely throws herselfinto

community life; chattingaway to pen-

sioners, visitingthe quaysidefish mar-

ket, cadgingtrips onfishingvessels.

This is no travel-lite romp,however.

Ashis not onlytoosensitivefor that, she

is also too vested. Her very name(Lam-

orna is a covejust around the headland)

evokes the county whereher mother

was born and where Ash’s imagined

identitylies. Indeed,itishergradual

disabusingofthis privately concocted

“creation myth”thatgives the book

much ofits bite and poignancy.

In one tellingincident, shebounces

enthusiasticallyuptoalocalshop-

keeper after a short stint away, onlyfor

the woman to look at her blankly:“No,

sorry, I can’t place you, my love.”This is

Ashlearning,likeweallmust, that we

are but a“blip”and that placesgoon

without us.

So, ifnot to Ash, then to whom does

this corner ofcoastal Cornwall belong?

The question cuts to the core ofthis

acutelyobservedaccountofitshard-

pressedfishermen. Hit by risingcosts

and restrictive EU quotas(“bloody

Frenchies”), the UKfishingindustry has

struggledin recentdecades.

Ash’sfocus is only tangentially on the

politics and economics ofmodern-day

fisheries. Instead, what catches her eye

—andwhat shewrites aboutinoften

scintillatingprose — are theindividual

lives of Cornwall’s fishermen.Mensuch

as Don, the Filadelfia’s barrel-chested

skipper, whose onshore vivacity evapo-

ratesinto sombresilence onceinhis

wheelhouse. Or the crabberJames, who

digitally tags his pots as with an“x”ona

treasure map. Or the“left-field”Kyle,

who oncewenttoManchesterbutwas

confounded by the absence ofthe sea.

Whensheturnstoissues such as

quota revisions or Brexit(which has

near-universal support infishingcom-

munities),Ashdoes sonotinfacts and

figures but via the lived realities ofthe

fishermen. Embedded amongthem, she

absorbs theirfrustrationat “continu-

ouslyfeelingunheard”— aboutgentrifi-

cation andyouthunemployment, about

the loss ofvillage ways and possible

betrayalbyUKtradenegotiators.

Cornwall’s harbourside cottages and

ragged cliffs may look picturesque, but

they hide an unsettling“anger and insu-

larity”, she argues. Withgraceful lyri-

cism andendearinghumility, Ashgives

this rage both voice andface. Instinct

will warn many ofher subjects to be dis-

trustful ofan“emmet”writingabout

themandtheirturf. Sheisn’t oneof

themnorever willbe.Yet forthosein

Newlyn whogot toknowher—asLam-

orna, Raymundo, mylove—she more

than earnsher Cornishstripes.

Castyournetwide

Whatbeganasthesisresearch

morphsintoalyricalstudyof

Cornwall’sfishingcommunity,

says OliverBalch

Dark,Salt,Clear

byLamornaAsh

Bloomsbury Press

£15, 336 pages

Brown tells his anecdotes well, with a

good choice ofquotes and an easy prose

style. His book is a useful digest, snap-

ping up triflesfrom the voluminous

Beatles bibliography. But its lack of

analysis or original insight is exposed

over the course ofmore than 600 pages.

TheFabs are arrangedbyarchetype.

Diligent but self-interested Paul; mercu-

rial Lennon; stubborn George; good old

Ringo(evidently Brown’sfavourite).

Yoko Ono is contemptuously mocked as

pretentious; Lennon’s embrace ofthe

counterculturedisparaged.

There is patchy interest in the band’s

musical progression. There are glimpses

ofwhat they brought to pop music, like

Bob Dylan’s observation that their

“chords were outrageous, just outrage-

ous, andtheirharmonies madeitall

valid”, but these pass by without further

comment. The groundbreaking use of

Cuneiform Assyrian script dating

from c800 BC— British Museum/Getty Images

O F B b F 6 D b B £ I

havedevised thisorderat the cost

of great effort and strenuous appli-

cation,”wrote Giovanni Balbi,a

Dominican cleric, ofhis alphabet-

ised Latin dictionary in 1286.“Ibeg

ofyou, therefore,good reader, do not

scorn thisgreat labour ofmine and this

order as somethingworthless.”

To defend alphabetisation may seem

bizarretoamodern reader.Soinstinct-

ive, so obvious, is its application that it is

hard to imagineareference, catalogue

orlistingwithout it. But ithas not

alwaysbeen so, ashistorian JudithFlan-

derstracesinAPlaceforEverything.

The invention ofwritingis thought to

have occurred separately half a dozen

timesaroundtheglobe—yetthealpha-

betis so unique that itcanbe traced to

one community oftraders and merce-

naries in Egypt’s Western Desert 4,00 0

years ago. Sparingits users theneedto

memorise all10,000 characters that

Egyptianhieroglyphicshadacquiredby

AD100, the effect on literacy was dra-

matic.Forwriters,thealphabet wasa

democratiser, enablingclassifications

that eschewedclass, value ordivine

hierarchies.“The religious no longer

automaticallytookprecedence over the

secular,kings over subjects, or man over

animals,”explains Flanders.

Ye t alphabeticalorder was not an

immediate consequence ofthe alphabet

itself. Onlyfour ofthe several thousand

survivinginscriptionsfound across the

Roman empire before thefifth century

are alphabetical. Galen’sOntheProper-

tiesofFoodlists comestiblesfirst by their

general classification, then subjectively

accordingtothe most nourishing.The

first Chinese dictionarieswereeither

orderedtopicallyorbythewayinwhich

a characterwas drawn.

Inthe Middle Ages, deferencefor

ecclesiasticaltraditionleft scholars

reluctant to alphabetise — todoso

would bearejection ofthe divine order

ofthings. But thegrowth ofhumanism

and the rediscovery ofthe ancient Greek

andRomanclassicsnecessitatedmore

efficient ways ofordering, searching

and referencingtexts.

Even with the advent ofthe printing

press, titles andcontents remaineda

rarity, while numberingtendedtoguide

printer rather than reader:by1450,

only one in 10 manuscripts offered any

kind ofpagination. And a century later,

Barnabe Googe’s translation ofthe Latin

epicZodiacusVitaestill hadto explain

the concept ofa“Figure [that] referreth

the Reader to the number ofthe page”.

Governmentbureaucracy in the 16th

and17thcenturies quickenedthe

advance ofalphabetical order, bringing

withit pigeonholes, notebooksandcard

indexes.Not allwereconvinced—Col-

eridge was still railingagainst the“acci-

dent ofinitial letters”in 1803 — but by

the 20thcentury the system was so

ubiquitous as tobe invisible, its second-

nature status the true signofits uptake.

Alphabetisationbrings complications

ofits own. In ourglobal society, which

alphabetdo you use? Flanders acknow-

ledges thathers is a western-dominated

narrative — andone that perhaps ends

too quickly,jumpingswiftlyfrom“I”to

“Y”in its own alphabetical chapter

headings. Much ofthe digital age, which

hasrevolutionised howwe access and

order information, is left untouched.

APlaceforEverythingisnonetheless a

charmingrepository ofidiosyncrasy,a

loveletter toliteracy that rightly

delights in alphabetisation’s exceptions

asmuch asitsrules.Andwhile the

alphabet mayhavelost its novelty since

Balbi’s day, Flanders shows us that it

hasn’tlostits charm.

It’saseasyasA,B,C...

...Orisit?Thisloveletterto

literacycapturesthequirksof

lifebeforethealphabetaswe

knowit.ByChrisAllnutt

APlacefor

Everything:

TheCurious

Historyof

Alphabetical

Order

byJudithFlanders

Picador £16.99

272 pages

A E T H A O b P 2

The Beatles in Australia, 1964— Getty