Lennon, John

with eleven corrections in red and black ink, one page, large post quarto (10 x 8 in.; 253 x 203mm, unwatermarked), small stains

Lennon here directs his biting wit at two targets: the conservatism of middle England (the action takes place in the "small village, Squirmly on the Slug"), and religious bigotry. The piece, which is published on p.77 of In His Own Write, is an early intimation of the caustic opinions on Christianity that would cause such enormous upset in 1966, when Lennon said that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus". This brief portrayal of "Victor Hardly, a harmless boot", victimized by the great and the good of the village is typical of Lennon's politics, which were always, whatever their other inconsistencies, dominated by a heartfelt sympathy for the underdog. In a 1971 interview with the radical magazine Red Mole Lennon cited his books as proof that "I was always political in my way": "even though they were written in a sort of Joycean gobbledegook, there’s many knocks at religion ... I’ve been satirising the system since my childhood."