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List Price: $18.00 | | Publisher: Guernica Editions Inc.
Salesrank: 715657
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
Mystical One: George Harrison
After the Break-Up of the Beatles
This biography covers the years 1969 to the present day and celebrates George Harrison’s career as both a musician and independent film producer. Mystical One focuses on the music found in the solo albums that Harrison released from 1970, his sporadic tours and live appearances, his work with The Traveling Wilburys, and the fascinating catalogue of unreleased songs lying in his vaults, and his latest record, Brainwashed. The book also delves into the personal life of the least written about Beatle, covering such fascinating episodes as the high profile break-up of his marriage to Pattie Boyd and the "My Sweet Lord" plagiarism case, the reformation of The Beatles and his battles with cancer, plus the traumatic events of 1999 that saw him nearly killed by a mad intruder into his Oxfordshire home. This is the very first in-depth critique of George Harrison’s solo career leading up to the days of his untimely death on the 29th November 2001.
Elliot J. Huntley is a writer based in Sheffield, England.
Mystical One: George Harrison: After the Breakup of the Beatles (Essay series) Reviews:
George is God; eveyone else sucks (especially the Beatles Clapton & the Stones) 
2009-08-01 - This is not a professional publication; it's someone's personal essay. The author has the unique viewpoint that everyone else, and I mean everyone else, is terrible. I am an avid Bealtes fan with George my favorite and I deeply regret the $$$ and time spent on this so called mystical book. Mystical it ain't.
Great Beatles writing--Poor editing--Still worthwhile 
2008-07-23 - This book is well-written, well-researched, thorough, entertaining, and rewarding. Beginning with the break-up of The Beatles, Huntley focuses on the rest of George Harrison's all too brief life; his approach to recording; his relationships with Paul, John, and Ringo; his family life, and the three great tragedies of his later years: John Lennon's murder, George's near-fatal stabbing at the hands of a deranged home intruder, and his final battle with cancer.
Although I'm glad this book finally exists, the editing is the sloppiest I've ever seen in a published work. Although I'm not a grammar prig, every other page seemed to feature a misused apostrophe, strange tense shift, a sentence with an extra or missing word, or a basic flub--for example, "Sang (sic) with genuine emotion, this song was a deserved number one hit on the American charts." This publisher might also want to consider adding an author biographical note in order to establish Huntley's credibility, especially because Huntley freely offers his often scathing opinions on other musicians, including John Lennon and Eric Clapton. An index would also be a welcome addition to future printings.
An interesting read, but not much new material 
2006-11-14 - Huntley's book is adequate for a passing fan, but in terms of new material or insight it seems a bit lacking. That is not said as a major flaw of the book. On balance, the factual material seems to be there.
I do realize this is an "essay," but I wish he had left out the overly editorial comments particularly those reflecting his opinions of the musicians George Harrison chose to back him on tour and in the studio. Such commentary did not add a bit to my appreciation for this work.
Great book. 
2005-09-26 - I've been a George fan for many years, and although I knew most of the info, the format of this book put the events of his personal and musical life in a sequence that I hadn't picked up from reading other books. Definitely recommend this to George fans.
post-Beatle stories finally collected in one place
2005-01-05 - I can not fault the research done on this book. It is pretty solid. Most public highlights in George Harrison's life are explained in detail here. I would say go ahead and read this book to fill in the gaps or to clarify your understanding of George Harrison, but do so with some caution.
There are two incidents about George Harrison I had hoped would be explained in much greater detail. Unfortunately, having read this book I still have questions about (1.) why George started visiting Hawaii in the 1970s (At the time I read disturbing reports in magazines about George's safety in the U. K. resulting in these trips!) and (2.) the frustrating and abrupt termination of his business partnership with Denis O'Brien resulting in the end of Handmade Films and reports of serious financial problems.
I had also hoped to have the tenets of George's religious affiliations explained in detail. I never once heard George refer to himself as a Hindu (he would call himself a devotee of Krishna but never use the term Hindu) in spite of his near-lifelong study of the Hindu religion. Everyone who knows about George knows he was facinated by the religion native to the Indian subcontinent but know precious little about its beliefs. Here would have been a good place to help readers learn more about about this Faith.
The thing that made me uncomfortable with this book was the fact that genuinely harmless people close to George, including Ravi Shankar and Billy Preston, are victims of unkind words made at their expense, possibly just for the sake of humor, but hurtful just the same.
