SPENDING two months in Bermuda in the summer of 1980 really was just like starting over for former Beatle John Lennon - who overcame a five-year period of writer's block to produce two albums' worth of new material while on the island.

According to Philip Norman's new biography on Lennon, John Lennon: The Life, which goes on sale on October 28, Lennon's decision to sail to the island from New York aboard a 43-foot schooner Megan Jaye as a 40th birthday challenge to himself ¿ and his subsequent decision to spend the summer here, reconnecting with his creative muse - rejuvenated the superstar who had gone into semi-retirement in the mid-1970s and stopped performing and recording new material.

"John had certainly discovered something, because the Megan Jaye adventure galvanised him into wanting to make music again, and he was suddenly seized with a desire to make another album," writes music historian Norman, whose other books include an acclaimed history of the Fab Four titled Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation.

"Lennon was quoted in an interview after his working vacation in Bermuda as saying: 'I was so centred after the experience at sea,' he said. 'All these songs came, after five years of nothing, no inspiration, no thought, no anything, then suddenly voom, voom, voom.'

"In fact, he had never stopped making music during his retirement, putting numerous song ideas on tape, but never perservering with them.

"The tracks he wrote in Bermuda all dealt with the life he had been leading since Sean had been born and they testified that, by and large, it had been a happy and fulfilled one. Beautiful Boy was a hymn of joy to his son, affording a peep into his warm, safe nursery world and tempering impatience to see him grow up with a poignant selfreminder to appreciate every moment ('Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans'). Another song, (Just Like) Starting Over, signified that, whatever Bermuda Triangle his marriage had passed through, it was back on an even keel and sailing confidently forward. "

Lennon rented a home in Fairylands after arriving here on the Megan Jaye and between bursts of songwriting spent the summer exploring the island with his young son, Sean.

The album of Bermuda-penned material Lennon recorded immediately after returning to New York, Double Fantasy, took its name from a flower in the Botanical Gardens that had caught Sean's eye.

Lennon thought the name was a perfect metaphor for his marriage to Japanese artist Yoko Ono ¿ and also referenced his time in Bermuda where the new songs were written.

Norman says Lennon's time in Bermuda so fired up the famous musician that as soon as he got back to New York City he was ready to go into the recording studio rock and roll.

The author says assembling the right team of musicians for the project was vital because Lennon didn't want to be surrounded by any negative influences who might have caused him to backslide into alcohol and drugs after a long period of sobriety.

"Instead of cocaine and cognac, the band were served tea and sushi; a plate of sunflower seeds and raisins stood beside every microphone," says Norman.

"Sean's picture hung over the mixing desk, a constant reminder that sessions must end in time for John to get home and say goodnight to him."

Among the musicians Lennon recruited to play on Double Fantasy was renowned Bermudian drummer Andy Newmark ¿ who this week talked to the Mid-Ocean News (see Page 5) about working with his childhood musical idol, Lennon's December, 1980 murder at the hands of a deranged fan and how only by immersing himself in work was he able to overcome the depression that blighted him after the killing.