Ah, ok, just learned of that habit to sign the flap of a letter with SWAK - sealed with a kiss! But SWAB? Sealed with a burp? Probably some inside joke between them.
Inside joke makes sense. Sealed with a batch of nothing? Everything seems to be emphasized as a clear acronym, so a secret code amongst fiends?
I like Mike's style in all these early photos. Did he ever come out with a book? He's not one to make money off the Beatles legacy, so I'm assuming not.
I think he’s published several. His photos also are prominently displayed at their boyhood home on Forthlin Road. So, when you’re standing in front of the fireplace there, hanging on the wall is a photo of Paul and John writing a song while sitting in front of the fireplace.
Mark Lewisohn does touch upon the affair in the Notes section of his book. 9. Scufflers to Skifflers (July - December 1956) Note 73: Student lodger Michael Fishwick claimed five decades later that for a period of about eighteen months from December 1956 he and Mimi Smith conducted a discreet affair,one that was kept entirely within the walls of 251 Menlove Avenue and usually only when John was out of the house. Mimi (50) was a recently bereaved widow and Fishwick (24) had been lodging at Mendips five years, when he says nature took it's course.
The letter is currently at one of the Hard Rock Hotels and according to their description: The cryptic anagram on the back of the envelope continues John’s nihilism – his “S.W.A.B. N.O.T.H.I.N.G.” stands for “sealed with a bloody nothing”.
Here is Tune In's Mark Lewisohn translation from the John Lennon. It doesn't look like it contains the whole letter, and apparently on the back page Lindy got two cartoons, "one of a naked man on a cross, with crucifix-shaped genitals, the other of a guitar being crucified". Thanks for your lovely letter, you’re a gas man. I can’t think of anything funny for you ’cause I’m so cheesed off I could bloody cry. I hate Hamburg and I wish I was at home. I loved you being at the Airport, it was very thoughtful or something and your hair was good god. This letter won’t be a long one ’cause I’m tired and I don’t feel like writing, even to you—I haven’t answered any other letters ’cause I’m fed up—everyone will think I’m a bastard but I don’t care, so there.
