The 11 ink sketches, penned for her 1978 book A Twist Of Lennon, have been put on permanent display at The Beatles Story museum in the band's native Liverpool.

The cartoons, which cost the museum "several thousand pounds", had been hanging on the walls of Cynthia's French home.

The collection, along with four other drawings, were first put on show at a gallery on London's Portobello Road last month.

"Fantastic times"

The 59-year-old says the works capture "some fantastic times" she spent with husband Jonh Lennon and the rest of the legendary band.

The drawings depict scenes of the Lennons on holiday with George Harrison and his partner Patti Boyd, the birth of the couple's son Julian and the pair riding on the top deck of a Liverpool bus.

The exhibition was co-ordinated with the help of the Liverpool Art School, where Cynthia and John met and fell in love as students.

"The 10 years I spent with John are part of what I am," says Cynthia, whose marriage to the musician ended in 1968 when John left her for Japanese avant garde artist Yoko Ono.

Cynthia fell pregnant with son Julian, now a successful musician like his father, before finishing her education.

The Liverpool lads who conquered the world

"My talents and aspirations had to be put on the back burner, but that was a much my fault as anybody else's," says the artist.

Cynthia, who "bit the bullet" and kept her husband's name after their divorce, is still deeply saddened by John's murder in 1980.

"His death was very hard to handle, but life goes on."

"I just wish that he had had a happy existence - he was always suffering in one way or another. But when I heard him sing, that was his escape."