The first official The Beatles book since the turn of the millennium has been announced, telling the story of the band’s final studio album ‘Let It Be‘.

The Beatles: Get Back, a 240-page hardback, will be published worldwide on August 31, 2021. You can see a trailer for it below.

The book begins at the start of 1969, shortly after the release of their chart-topping ‘The White Album’, and covers sessions for their final LP as well as their now-iconic rooftop performance – their last ever gig.

It features transcribed conversations drawn from the band’s 120 hours of studio recording sessions, as well as hundreds of previously unpublished images from the archives of Linda McCartney and acclaimed photographer Ethan A. Russell, whose pictures feature on the sleeve of ‘Le It Be’.

It features a foreword from director Peter Jackson, whose documentary about the album, also titled The Beatles: Get Back, will be released shortly before the book on August 27. Novelist Hanif Kureishi has written the introduction.

While the Let It Be sessions have often been described as fractious, Kureishi writes: “In fact this was a productive time for them, when they created some of their best work. And it is here that we have the privilege of witnessing their early drafts, the mistakes, the drift and digressions, the boredom, the excitement, joyous jamming and sudden breakthroughs that led to the work we now know and admire.”

It’s the first standalone Beatles book officially released by the band since The Beatles Anthology, which was a bestseller when published in the year 2000.

Meanwhile, John Lennon‘s 80th birthday is set to be marked with the release of a new remix album called ‘Gimme Some Truth. The Ultimate Mixes’ next month.