A TAPE revealing how John Lennon finally forgave his father Freddy for abandoning him has gone up for auction. The deserted Beatle barely knew the sailor who left him when he was aged just five. It took another 18 years and Lennon's meteoric rise to fame for the wayward parent to rekindle ties with his son. But the relationship was, at best, strained and fraught with accusations that his father was only after his money. Now bids are being taken for a recording of Lennon on November 11, 1977, telling how he had come to terms with being abandoned. It is said to be the most revealing account of his feelings towards his father and is expected to go for upwards of £100,000. Lennon can be heard saying: "My father died last year. I didn't really know him that well, but I talked to him before he died. "He had written out his life story. He had cancer. The surgeon told me that, before he died, he and my father had written a book. "All he wanted was for me to hear his side of the story. And there's this incredible manuscript about every detail of his life. It's a really wild adventure." The nine-minute recording is of a telephone conversation between Lennon and Tony Cox, an American artist who had been married to Yoko Ono and had a daughter with her. He had gone on the run with the child fearing Lennon and Ono would try to take her away from him. Cox sold the tapes to a collector who has now put them up for auction. Freddy always claimed he had been thrown out by Lennon's mother, Julia. He worked on troop ships in Liverpool, Southampton and France and died in April, 1976, after a battle with cancer. Lennon talked about his father's sailor days on the tape. He said: "He was a sailor, you know, and he was in trouble all around the world. "He was one of those people who always just managed not to get in too deep a trouble, but in trouble, you know. "But at the end of every chapter, he's written like a little homily, sort of a little dig at me." The tape is being auctioned on www.mastronet.com..SUPL: | 
