. .’

Bereaved: McCartney told a Brazilian fan this week that he would see his mother if he had a time machine

The song, of course, was Let It Be. Paul would later say it came about as a result of a dream he’d had in 1968, when, though The Beatles were at the height of their fame and creativity, fissures had begun appearing in the camaraderie of the band.

John Lennon had recently become attached to Yoko Ono, and the future looked uncertain for The Beatles, which devastated Paul.

Suddenly, in the middle of the turmoil, he found himself dreaming about his mother.

‘There was her face, completely clear, particularly her eyes,’ he would recall. ‘And she said to me very gently, very reassuringly: “Let it be.”

‘It was lovely. I woke uphaving been in charge of the maternity ward at Walton Hospital, Liverpool, she was awarded the privilege of giving birth to Paul in a private ward. Her ambition for her elder son was that he would become a doctor.

Jim McCartney, a lovely man, had a little jazz band before he married, so there was music in the family.

Though the cotton industry was to go into decline after the war, meaning Jim never earned much, his wife’s wages and ambition saw the family eventually move to a pleasant estate in the green Liverpool suburb of Allerton.

From there, Paul and Michael passed the 11-plus to go to the best grammar school in Liverpool, the Institute.

Paul was clever and always industrious, but he admits he could be a handful, too.



Family portrait: