We're delighted that Maurice Hindle's previously unpublished interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, conducted at Lennon's home in Surrey in December 1968, has attracted so much interest. We've published Maurice's hugely evocative preamble to the interview and the first question and answer on newstatesman.com. To read the full interview, you'll need to buy a copy of our sumptuous Christmas double issue.

Elsewhere in our bumper Christmas Critics section we have an exclusive short story by Amanda Craig, an essay on the writing of contemporary history by Vernon Bogdanor, John Gray on Darwinism and politics, Andrew Billen on the best pantomimes of the season and Will Self on the horrors of Christmas dinner.