I'm giving the book four stars because it does deliver the information in Kenneth Womack's standard, workmanlike manner (with all his signature words and phrases like "calculus" and "bravura" and "for the ages" tossed in).

We're given an almost day-to-day chronicle of Mal Evans life from meeting the Beatles until his death in early 1976.

Unfortunately, along the way, there's a point where I decided it had been a mistake for me to read this book. I'd always smiled when I saw Mal in the movies and photos, but now that's always going to be coloured by the knowledge that he was not the person everyone made him out to be.

Yes, he was an excellent roadie, with an almost preternatural ability to anticipate the Beatles' needs and wants. Yes, he was mostly a gentle giant of a man who made friends easily and everyone seemed to adore.

But there's a far darker side, and it all seems to do with addictions. Addiction to drugs, to alcohol, to young women, to sex, to fame, to recognition, and to the Beatles. All at the expense of a family that didn't deserve his absence.

Honestly, the more I learned, the more I grew to hate Mal Evans.

So, four stars for the book itself. But Mal? Yeah, he gets none. ( )

Living the Beatles Legend by Kenneth Womack offers a wonderful look at Mal Evans life and particularly his long association with The Beatles, collectively and separately.

Like so many fans of the band, I heard a lot about Evans, certainly saw him in the background quite a lot. What I really enjoyed about this biography, specifically the parts directly involving the band, was the flipping of the script. So much of what I knew about Evans was still centered on The Beatles, with him on the periphery, even when the role he played was essential. Here, while the band is still front and center, Evans is more centered, more prominent. We forget sometimes that people around celebrities are still human beings living their own lives, though in this case Evans chose to put The Beatles pretty much at the center of his own life.

I can only imagine, until the follow-up book comes out, just how much memorabilia Evans collected. I, like many my age, have/had quite a bit of "stuff." All of the US albums including the later collections (the first album I bought with my own money, shortly after it was released, was Revolver. Prior to that my parents and sister had bought the albums for me), most of the UK albums, the various figurines, posters, books, ticket stubs (from concerts I didn't go to, but a friend of my sister's would give me hers), various items from the fan club, and the intangible of having met two of the members, though well after their time together. Yet as much as I cherish all that, it doesn't even remotely compare in either quantity or quality to what Evans collected. The only similarity is that we, Evans as well as all the other fans who did likewise, did it out of love and admiration.

I feel confident recommending this book to everyone with an interest in The Beatles. I know some volumes have been criticized, unjustly in my opinion, for not always having enough about the band, even when those books are about another person or aspect of Beatlemania. This biography will satisfy even those fickle readers, largely because Evans placed the band in the center of his own life and thus prominently in his own biography. But make no mistake, this is Mal Evans' story and it is a fun one for the most part.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )