JOHN LENNON UNSEEN

Secret behind his favourite Beatles hit

BAREFOOT on a Spanish beach, John Lennon is lost in thought with his guitar, writing the song he regarded as his highest achievement in the Beatles era, Strawberry Fields Forever.

The image – published for the first time – is from the collection of the late star’s friend, the photographer Gabrielle Crawford and Lennon was 27.

She took the snap in Almeria in 1966 when he was filming How I Won The War with her then husband Michael Crawford.

“I was experimenting with a fisheye lens and captured John playing his guitar,” she recalled. “He wasn’t in much of the film and Michael was, so I had hours and hours with him, wasting time. We talked about life. He was a very gentle person.”

Gabrielle, 74, has been hired by the Orne Department of Contemporary Art to create an exhibition of war monuments in northern France, running from June 28 to September 1, marking 75 years since the Allied Normandy campaign.

John Lennon strums his guitar on the beach in Almeria, Spain

John Lennon appeared in How I Won The War in 1967, alongside Michael Crawford, who was married to Gabrielle Crawford