her advice, and although she had her own plans for the group, she concluded that Epstein would be good for them over time. After The Beatles signed a management contract with Epstein, Mona did not relinquish her control over them, as they had been using her telephone to call agents, and frequently slept over in her living room between concerts. She reportedly harassed Epstein about the quality of their bookings, and his management of them, which led to Epstein never referring to her by name, but always calling her "that woman". One musician commented that if Mona said it was a Sunday when it was Tuesday, one would be forced to agree with her. After Best, McCartney and Harrison were deported from Hamburg in November 1960, Mona made numerous phone calls to Hamburg to recover the group's equipment, which she eventually managed to do. Mona wrote to Granada Television in 1961, in an attempt to gain the group a booking on the television programme People And Places, but was sent a letter telling her that they would contact her in the future. After Pete had been dismissed from The Beatles on 16 August 1962, Mona was later quoted by biographer Hunter Davies as saying: Later years In 1967, when The Beatles had to pose for the photograph for the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Lennon asked Mona if he could borrow the war medals her father had been given in India to wear for the photo session. Although still upset at the way Pete had been dismissed from The Beatles, Mona agreed, and the medals were then returned, along with a Cash Box trophy that is in the letter 'L' of THE BEATLES flower-sign on the cover. Mona never opened another club, or engaged in another business venture, although she did have paying guests at her house, which she shared with her bed-ridden mother and her sons after she and her husband Johnny had parted. Mona died of a heart attack on 9 September 1988, after a long illness. Notes References External links An Evening With Pete Best, Part I: The Interview Best interview with Stephen Cooke – 11 Sep 1996 Rolling Stone on Best's DVD The medals and Sergeant Pepper 1924 births 1988 deaths People from Delhi English people of Irish descent The Beatles British expatriates in India 20th-century English businesspeople