In many books about the Beatles, the authors retell some of the popular and well-known stories from the Beatles’ childhoods. However, for me, there was always something missing; there was no Liverpool feel to the stories. In fact, many authors had their facts wrong too, and it is still happening today. What was missing was obvious to me: to understand the Beatles, you have to understand Liverpool. The Beatles could not have come from any other city. Professor John Belchem, one of Liverpool’s foremost historians summed it up beautifully: “Liverpool is in the North of England, but not really of it. We are living in the people’s republic of Merseyside.”