John Lennon: The Life

by Philip Norman

of “picturedromes,” possibly a result of Julia’s former employment in one. John was therefore limited to seemly entertainments such as the periodic Disney screen epics, Bambi or Snow White, and the Christmas pantomime at the Liverpool Empire. Sweets were still issued by ration-book “points,” as they would be until 1953: John’s daily allotment was a single piece of health-giving barley sugar each evening at bedtime. But George would defy the wifely Look that otherwise ruled him by taking John to Woolton’s little cinema or smuggling sweets or chocolate upstairs to him after lights-out. Mimi felt almost envious—though it was beyond her to admit as much—when she saw the two of them flying paper airplanes in the back garden or hugging each other and laughing. Even John’s tendency to tell fibs never clouded the sunshine of their relationship. “Tell you what,” George would say to Mimi with a chuckle. “He’s never going to be a vicar.” As Julia had before him, John soon identified Mimi’s weak spot: her sense of humor. In summertime, while she sat in the back garden in a deck chair, he would stealthily open an upstairs window and flick water