Intelligence Squared presents
John and Paul: A Beatles Love Story in Songs
In 1957 John Lennon and Paul McCartney were two ordinary teenagers who met in suburban Liverpool and decided to play rock and roll together. Twenty-three years later that friendship came to a tragic end when Lennon was murdered. But those 23 years changed the world. Lennon and McCartney became global stars, created a body of work that has never been matched in popular music, and arguably had more influence on our culture than any other figures in the past century.
On June 16, after a sold-out first show, writer Ian Leslie returns to the Kiln Theatre, alongside host Pete Paphides to tell a new history of the world’s most influential creative relationship and explain why Lennon and McCartney were a combination of friends, rivals and collaborators. Drawing from his new book John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Leslie will explore how both Beatles had the fabric of their world ruptured at a young age, and longed to make emotional connections with each other, and with audiences. The pop song was a vessel into which they poured feelings of grief and euphoria and everything in between. When they couldn’t speak what they felt, they sang it. After the break-up of their group, they maintained a musical dialogue at a distance, in songs full of recrimination, regret, and affection.
Join us live at The Kiln Theatre and ask your questions, as Leslie traces the twists and turns of the Lennon/McCartney relationship through the music it produced and the huge impact it still has on the world today.
Ian Leslie - Writer
Ian Leslie is a journalist and author of acclaimed books on human behaviour including Born Liars, Curious, and Conflicted. His new book, published by Faber in March 2025, is John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs. He writes about psychology, culture, technology and business for the New Statesman, the Economist, the Guardian and the Financial Times. He co-hosted the podcast series Polarised, on the way we do politics today, and created and presented the BBC radio comedy series Before They Were Famous. He advises CEOs and CMOs on communication and workplace culture. Ian is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He lives in London with his wife and two young children.
Available for £17 with tickets.
Pete Paphides - Broadcaster and Music Journalist
Pete started his career in music journalism at Melody Maker before going on to write for Time Out, the Guardian, Mojo, Q, Observer Music Monthly and The Times, where he spent five years as their Chief Music Critic. He has made several music documentaries for BBC Radio 4, including ‘Lost Albums’, ‘Follow-Up Albums’ and the New York Radio Festival Gold Award-winning ‘The Songs of Molly Drake’. Over the years, he has been a regular contributor to BBC Four music documentaries and he also made two series of Vinyl Revival for BBC 6 Music. Since 2015, he has hosted a weekly music show for Soho Radio and in 2020, Quercus published his first book, a memoir about childhood and music entitled ‘Broken Greek’. The book has been warmly received and was featured as BBC Radio 4’s Book Of The Week in May. ‘Broken Greek’ has since been optioned by Andrew Eaton (The Crown, 24-Hour Party People) for a television series.