Philip Norman was born in London and brought up on the Isle of Wight. He joined the Sunday Times at the age of twenty-two, soon gaining a reputation as Atticus columnist and for his profiles of figures as diverse as Elizabeth Taylor, P. G. Wodehouse, Little Richard, and Colonel Gaddafi. As a noted music biographer, he has received acclaim for multiple works including SHOUT!, a ground-breaking biography of the Beatles that was a bestseller in both Britain and the US, and John Lennon: The Life, which the New York Times called "a mammoth, haunting, terrific piece of work." He has also written the definitive lives of Sir Elton John, Buddy Holly, George Harrison, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix.