Steve Jobs was often bullied in school and stopped going to church at the age of 13, according to an authorised biography of the late Apple chief executive officer. Mr Jobs also revealed that the Beatles was one of his favourite bands, and one of his wishes was to get the band on iTunes before he died.

Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson, will be published on Monday in the US by Simon & Schuster. Advanced sales of the biography have topped bestseller lists since Jobs died on October 5 at the age of 56 after a long battle with cancer.

According to the book, Jobs never went back to church after he saw a photo of starving children on the cover of Life Magazine. Later, he spent years studying Zen Buddhism. Mr Jobs got The Beatles available for sale on iTunes in late 2010. Until then, the biggest-selling, most influential group in rock history had been glaringly absent from iTunes and other legal online music services.

The book was originally called iSteve and was scheduled to come out in March of next year. The release date was moved up to November, then, after Jobs’ death, to this coming Monday. Mr Isaacson interviewed Jobs more than 40 times, including just a few weeks before his death. The book says Mr Jobs put no subject off limits and had no control over its contents.