April 3, 2000 – The three surviving Beatles have turned into Hardback Writers to set the record straight on the Fab Four's oft-analyzed history, releasing their first-ever "autobiography" this fall.

After watching self-professed Beatles experts spout off on the legendary quartet's true story, remaining mop-tops Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr have collaborated on Beatles' Anthology.

Six years in the works, the 360-page tome will provide the most detailed (and firsthand) account of the band's roots – not to mention some 1,200 photographs – in a hardback edition that's described as "the size of an edition of Encyclopedia Britannica." Their story joins a glut of Beatles books already on the market, from stories by early John and Paul bandmates, to hardcore fans' personal memoirs and discographies.

"It will dispel some of the myths... as every Tom, Dick and uncle of a friend has been writing books on the Beatles since 1963," McCartney was quoted in London's Sunday Telegraph.

For instance, the book reportedly counters the onetime belief that Paul wanted the band to split up, saying that the late fourth Beatle John Lennon actually was the first to jump ship (though Beatlemaniacs will tell you that's old news). And it provides a few other previously unknown tidbits – like a million offer that the threesome rejected in 1996 to play 17 concerts in the U.S., Germany and Japan.

"We're talking a huge volume of work, it's encyclopedic – it weighs something like two kilos [4.4 pounds]," says Geoff Baker, McCartney's spokesman.

"It goes across the board, everything is in there. It is about the Beatles as a band, the music, but it deals with everything else – the tours, the drugs, the disputes," Baker adds. "The book answers all the questions."

The firsthand "Beatles bible" was originally announced in 1996 with a release date one year later. And although it was once reported that Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, collaborated on their ticket to write, the Sunday Telegraph reports that she was not directly involved with the book. She will, however, get a quarter share of the profits.

Some of the initial wordsmith work also reportedly was done by the band's late press officer, Derek Taylor, who died in 1997. Fans have taken their excitement to the Beatles-devoted sites, but most wondered aloud what the new book would say that "true" fans don't already know.

"It doesn't really sound as if anything revealed in this book will shock or surprise longtime fans," one speculates. "But it will still prove to be an interesting trip."