Aunt Mimi is terribly important, isn’t she?
The one constant presence through his entire 40 years of life. And the code of behaviour that she inculcated in him. Even at his most “Naughty John” he would still write thank-you notes, as she had taught him. Derek Taylor defined the characteristic of John that he most liked as grace. You might think John extremely graceless in many ways, but it was there, because of his aunt. But there were other aunts, also playing a powerful part, a circle of women. In fact, at the Cavern he once looked out and there were at least three aunts watching him. It was like P.G. Wodehouse. And you have material from Dakota, like the taped autobiography he began in 1979. Again the surprising thing was to find out how learned John was, and how much he read. And how many connections he made in that audio diary. There’s a reference not only to Truman Capote but also to E.M. Forster: Forster had said to people he always thought that when he got old his sexual urges would subside, but they were even worse when
