After leaving Dovedale primary Lennon went to Quarry Bank, a suburban grammar school in Allerton close to his Aunt Mimi's house, with his best friend Pete Shotton in 1952.
Although Lennon was intelligent, his work got steadily worse and after failing all his O-Levels he went to Liverpool College of Art. It was at Quarry Bank that Lennon, then a "teddy boy", formed his first group, The Quarrymen, with schoolfriends Pete Shotton, Eric Griffiths, Len Garry, Colin Hanton and a lad called Rod. Later the group became Johnny and the Moondogs, the Silver Beatles and, finally, the Beatles.
English literature specialist Tessa Milne of Sotheby's said: "Mr Burrows was a key influence on the young John Lennon and encouraged him to pursue his artistic and literary interests. These drawings are remarkably accomplished for one so young, and the book is a wonderful example of Lennon's emerging artistic talent.
"They are proof the skills of the rebellious schoolboy were not lost on Mr Burrows, who encouraged his interest in poetry and art and then kept this exemplary exercise book from 1952 for the benefit of future generations of pupils at Quarry Bank."
The drawings in the book foreshadow the artwork Lennon produced as a teenager for The Daily Howl, a mock newspaper full of caricatures and satirical verses which he circulated among his classmates at Quarry Bank, themselves precursors of his later humorous poetry and prose, such as In His Own Write (1964) and A Spaniard in the Works (1965).
Lennon himself did not take the words to I Am the Walrus too seriously. He said in 1973: "I was the Walrus, whatever that means ... everybody presumes that just because I said I was the Walrus that it must mean I am God or something, but it's just poetry. But it became symbolic of me..."
Brian Davies, head of Calder-stones School, which used to be Quarry Bank, said: "It's a strange thing to do, keep a book by a 12-year-old. Maybe he had taken them home to mark and had forgotten them.
"Unless you had a time machine, how would anyone know which of the children they taught would be millionaires?"
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