IT is now two years since the death of his beloved wife and Sir Paul McCartney is moving on with his life. A frustrated artist for many years, he is publishing his first book of paintings and has started a relationship with North-East model Heather Mills.

But the parole hearing of John Lennon's killer Mark Chapman has once again focused his attention on the past and his relationship with the working class hero.

Lennon, who would have been 60 on October 9 if he had lived, gave an interview in 1970 to Rolling Stones magazine about the break-up of the Beatles and attacking Sir Paul. It cut him to the quick but the hurt soon faded.

"It hurt at the time," Sir Paul says. "But the great factor that stopped it hurting was that we got back as friends and Lennon is on record as saying, 'a lot of that slagging off I gave Paul was really just me crying for help'.

"He was a crazy guy, who would say just what he wanted when he felt like it. He could have been boozed out of his head, as he was during that period, he could have been crazed on this, that or the other substance, he could have just decided to have a go at me.

"I'm very lucky in as much as before he was killed we were able to tell each other we loved each other. I would have a major problem if I had never said that to him and he had never said that to me."

He grins when he recalls how Lennon used to react to one particular Beatles' classic which Sir Paul wrote.

"He would snipe at Yesterday, but I think that was because every time he would walk into a restaurant a pianist would play it, thinking it was a Lennon and McCartney," he says. "I don't think he didn't like it, I remember him telling me how much he did."

Sir Paul has recently hinted that he could marry again, but when asked what his future plans are he merely smiles and says "To enjoy".

He says his positive outlook on life was shaped by the Maharishi who the Beatles visited in India in the 60s and who told them to simply enjoy life.

He says: "I met him 30 years after that and my daughter Stella turned a video camera on him and said, 'okay what are you going to say?' and he said, 'enjoy', and I thought, 'well that's consistent'." It's a philosophy he seems determined to follow.