What if John Lennon had moved to New Zealand as a child instead of becoming a Beatle? In effect, this was the question that the majority of my writing focused on in 2025.
Many influential accounts of Beatles history have included a dramatic encounter in 1946. In the seaside resort of Blackpool, it’s said that John was asked to choose between moving to New Zealand with his father, Alf, or staying in Liverpool with his mother, Julia. In some versions, the five-year-old John initially chooses to go with Alf, before at the last minute running down the street to be with Julia.
We now know that the Blackpool story is at best an exaggeration. The initial reason for my interest in it was the possibility that the events may have influenced John’s later fascination with islands and the sea. But after researching it in more detail, I was intrigued by the way it developed over decades through interactions between different sources and writers. The decisive moment came when a retired businessman in New Zealand read a book review, and decided it was time to break decades of silence.
This post traces the rise and fall of the myth – and how our understanding of it continues to evolve.
1. Alf Lennon’s claims
The initial Blackpool story came from John Lennon’s father Alf, who in 1968 told Beatles biographer Hunter Davies that John “had to decide whether to stay with me or go with her”.