[13] She moved to London the same year and through her mother found work as a trainee beautician, age 17, at Elizabeth Arden's Bond Street salon.

[20][nb 1] In the description of journalist Tom Hibbert, Boyd and Jean Shrimpton became "international celebrities" as the embodiment of the "British female 'look' – mini-skirt, long, straight hair and wide-eyed loveliness".

This look defined Western fashion for women as a result of the international popularity of the Beatles and other British Invasion musical acts from 1964 onwards.

[24] Lester then cast her as a schoolgirl in the Beatles' 1964 film A Hard Day's Night,[25][26] where she met and befriended the group's lead guitarist, George Harrison.

[22][29] She recalls that further assignments for Vogue and Vanity Fair were the result, along with jobs for Tatler (with photographer Jeanloup Sieff), more TV commercials, for Smith's and for L'Oréal's Dop shampoo brand, and advertisements in newspaper fashion pages.

"[34] At the request of Gloria Stavers,[25] Boyd began writing a column, titled "Patti's Letter from London", for the American teen magazine 16.

[35] According to Hibbert: "She reported on the latest trends in Carnaby Street, informed readers as to what the Beatles and Stones were wearing at the moment, and gave advice on how to turn dark and curly hair straight and blonde.

"[22] However, with Boyd the target of hostility from the Beatles' female fans, Harrison insisted she abandon her career, to ensure their privacy.

[44] Boyd first exhibited her photos of Harrison and Clapton at the San Francisco Art Exchange on Valentine's Day 2005, in a show titled Through the Eye of a Muse.

[49][50] Her exhibition Yesterday and Today: The Beatles and Eric Clapton was shown on Santa Catalina Island in California,[51] and at the National Geographic Headquarters in Washington, DC, in 2011.

[53] Boyd was in a relationship with photographer Eric Swayne[54] when, at 19 (2 weeks away from her 20th birthday) she met Harrison, on 2 March 1964,[55] and therefore declined his initial date proposal.

[60] Boyd had her first encounter with LSD in early 1965[61] when the couple's dentist, John Riley,[62] secretly laced his guests' coffee with the drug during a dinner party at his home.

[66] In his "How a Beatle Lives" profile in the Evening Standard in March 1966, Harrison stressed the equality of their relationship and credited Boyd with broadening his outlook.

[67] In September and October, after the Beatles' final concert tour, Boyd and Harrison spent six weeks in India,[68] as guests of Indian classical musician Ravi Shankar.

[69][70] While in Bombay, as Harrison continued his sitar studies under Shankar's tutelage,[71] Boyd began learning to play the dilruba, a bow-played string instrument.

[91][nb 7] On 12 March 1969, (McCartney's wedding day to Linda) and as part of the perceived British authorities' less than tolerant attitude towards the Beatles during the late 1960s, both Boyd and Harrison were arrested at their home for possession of cannabis.

[93][94][95][96] In March 1970, a month before the Beatles' break-up, Boyd moved with Harrison to Friar Park, a Victorian neo-Gothic mansion in Henley-on-Thames.

[105][nb 9] Author Ian Inglis, discussing Harrison's 1973 song "So Sad", describes Boyd as the musician's "closest companion" and someone who shared in his "triumphs and tragedies".

Among these key events, Inglis lists the international Beatlemania phenomenon, the Beatles' decision to retire from live performance, the 1967 Summer of Love, Epstein's death, the creation of Apple Corps, the Beatles' exploration of Indian spirituality, the band's break-up, Harrison's ascendancy as a songwriter and then as a solo artist, and his Bangladesh aid project.

[108] Boyd's solicitor, Paddy Grafton-Green of the London firm Theodore Goddard, later remarked on the sensitivity shown by each party towards the other, which he found particularly rare in his experience of high-stakes divorces.

Her stated reasons were Clapton's years of alcoholism, as well as his numerous affairs,[129] including one with Italian actress Lory Del Santo.

[131] She subsequently suspected that Clapton's pursuit of her when she was married to Harrison "had more to do" with the competitive aspect of the two musicians' friendship, and that "Eric just wanted what George had.

"[132] In 2007, Rolling Stone referred to Boyd as a "legendary rock muse" for her role in inspiring the music of Harrison and Clapton,[133] while Alan Light of The New York Times described the Boyd–Clapton–Harrison love triangle as "one of the most mythical romantic entanglements in rock'n'roll history".

"[138] In August 2007, Headline Review published Boyd's autobiography, titled Wonderful Today[133] and co-written with journalist and broadcaster Penny Junor.

"[118] Reviewing Wonderful Today for The Daily Telegraph, Lynn Barber described it as "absolutely gripping" and a memoir that "gives more insight into the weirdness of rock-star life than anything I have ever read".