The book is the winner of the most important British prize in the non-fiction genre (Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction) for 2000. As jury chair Martha Kearney said, “Brown has succeeded in reinventing the biography genre itself.” The author of 18 books and a long-time host of a parody column for Private Eye magazine, Brown "artfully weaves together details from a variety of sources: diary entries, fan letters, interview transcripts, ratings and charts" to create a unique portrait of the world-changing Fab Four on the half-century anniversary of their breakup. . “It’s hard to imagine anyone being able to say anything new about the Beatles, given how much has already been written about them, but it’s still a very original book. This is a funny book, but also very deep, making you think about the very nature of fame.” According to Brown, he aimed to "capture the excitement and light-heartedness of the Beatles era and the speed with which John, Paul, George and Ringo changed, both for the better and for the worse." I wanted to show how they influenced literally everyone, from Her Majesty the Queen to Charlie Manson. And I decided that the best solution for this would be a scattering of short chapters, from which, like prisms, a kaleidoscope would form.” For the first time in Russian!