BOOKS

THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF NEVERLAND

The Child versus the State

A NAVIGATOR'S TALE

Written by Robb's father Ron Johnson, with additional material written by Robb Johnson.

A Navigator's Tale is a personal memoir of the Second World War. Using narrative, original diary entries and poetry, it records the experiences of the author, who was a navigator on a Liberator in the special duties 223 Squadron, 100 (Bomber Support) Group.

This revised edition includes new material, a biography by Ron's son, songwriter Robb Johnson, and Ron's collected poetry.

WORDS & CHORDS 2

Words, chords and back stories to over 70 songs from “one of this country's most important songwriters (no argument!)” — fRoots.

From Van Gogh's Night Cafe to the man-made disaster of Grenfell Tower, Karl Marx Stady to California's Highway 5, and Passendale to Hillsborough, with songs about parenthood, teaching, love, death and cauliflower curry.

Mixing three-chord post-punk anger, music hall singing, chanson's literate wit and folk song's tradition of expressing everyday dissent and everyday beauty, Robb Johnson is widely recognised as one of the UK's finest songwriters.

“An English Original” — Robin Denselow, The Guardian. “One of our best singer-songwriters ever” — Mike Harding. A “renowned folk-punk” — Time Out.

He gigs in the UK, Belgium, Germany and the USA, and his songs are covered by a variety of singers.

WOMAN: THE INCREDIBLE LIFE OF YOKO ONO

Written by Alan Clayson, Barb Jungr & Robb Johnson.

Robb contributed to this biography of Yoko Ono, co-written with Alan Clayson and Barb Jungr. Woman: The Incredible Life Of Yoko Ono was published by Chrome Dreams, ISBN 184240 220 X.

Robb's section of the narrative concerns the Lennon years. Robb had always thought that Lennon was at his most interesting when influenced by Yoko Ono's creativity, and his research into this period of Yoko's life confirmed his admiration for her as an artist and for her enduring commitment to peace and feminist politics.

Alan Clayson narrates Yoko's life before and after Lennon, and Barb Jungr analyses Yoko's creative work in a series of focussed essays.

Although Robb is a little unhappy with the way the book was edited, it's nonetheless the first sympathetic biography of Yoko Ono that presents her as an important and influential twentieth-century artist. She did, after all, more or less write Lennon's greatest hit Imagine.

WORDS & CHORDS PART 1

Here are the words and chords for 52 of Robb's best-known songs, alongside the stories that inspired them.