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Win a Kindle Paperwhite worth over £100 plus a copy of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep **NOW CLOSED**

(602 Posts)
SorchaGransnet (GNHQ) Mon 16-Jan-17 15:23:26

To celebrate the publication of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, a charming coming-of-age debut novel by Joanna Cannon, we're giving you the chance to win a Kindle Paperwhite.

Mrs Creasy is missing and The Avenue is alive with whispers. The neighbours blame the disappearance on the heatwave, but ten-year-olds Grace and Tilly aren't so sure.

As the summer shimmers endlessly on, the girls decide to start their own investigation. And as the cul-de-sac starts giving up its secrets, the amateur detectives find more than they imagined.

Joanna Cannon graduated from Leicester Medical School and worked as a hospital doctor, before specialising in psychiatry. She lives in the Peak District with her family and her dog.

To be in with a chance of winning a Kindle Paperwhite worth over £100 & a copy of the book, tell us - do you remember the heatwave of '76? If so, what are your memories of it?

Post your entry below by midday Monday 13 February.

Usual T&Cs apply.

This discussion is sponsored by HarperCollins

Lynnebo Thu 19-Jan-17 14:26:38

Oh I was the wonderful age of 18 in 1976 and holidayed in Teignmouth in Devon with my friend and her parents. It was all beach and bikinis - and ladybirds when they invaded the beach!! It was slso the best suntan I have ever had! ? x

Lorelei Thu 19-Jan-17 14:33:50

I remember the summer of '76 as one where our mum packed us off to the outdoor swimming pool as often as she could afford it, lots of long walks through the woods with the dog, a bumper crop of strawberries in the garden and the dog always looking for a shady spot. Eating the aforementioned strawberries while sunbathing in a bikini, and a bee or wasp bit me on the bum! I got a great tan that year, spent lovely hours reading outdoors - one of my happier years.

gillyknits Thu 19-Jan-17 14:55:08

Oh yes I remember the heatwave. My daughter was six months old and slept mostly in just a nappy. There were little loads of tiny little black flies that came off the corn My daughter learned to scratch at a very early age!!

tapps Thu 19-Jan-17 15:00:11

Spending all day at portobello beach enjoying fish&chips,

hel2win Thu 19-Jan-17 15:01:31

well i was 4 years old, so don't remember much. my only memory was sitting on the top deck of a bus and a swarm of ladybirds came because of the heat

Palmy Thu 19-Jan-17 15:04:55

still at school and enjoying the long hot summer at the beach

tillysouth Thu 19-Jan-17 15:05:53

The grass died in Littlehampton

Anya Thu 19-Jan-17 15:23:07

tillysouth that sounds like the first line of a poem smile

shandi6570 Thu 19-Jan-17 15:29:08

My most vivid memory is going on holiday with our one year old to a cottage in Devon. Two days after arriving the spring supplying our water dried up. Then a couple of days after that the weather changed and although it poured with rain there was still no water in the taps. Fortunately there was a stream running onto the local beach, about a mile away, so we used to trudge down there and back for any water we needed for cooking etc and our daily bath in the sea. Oh, happy memories.

emziemay Thu 19-Jan-17 15:49:51

Seeing Bjorn Borg at Wimbledon and people just collapsing with heatstroke!

maggie1234 Thu 19-Jan-17 16:21:11

just started running our guest house and it was too hot cooking in the kitchen and making beds, I was so envious of the holidaymakers in Scarborough who could go to the beach

Jan66 Thu 19-Jan-17 16:23:09

I remember camping out in a friends back garden in her 2 man tent and suffering from sunburn on my back and neck

maciv234 Thu 19-Jan-17 16:26:13

IT WAS WARM

Miriam Thu 19-Jan-17 16:33:24

I do remember it, I had been married for 3 years, but as I love hot weather I have only good memories of beautiful weather and never needing to carry coats, cardigans or umbrellas. Bliss.

padleys Thu 19-Jan-17 16:49:23

That was when i joined the army, and i remember we were learning to march on the parade ground, and most of us keeled over in the heat. It was so hot, that in the end, any marching we had to learn we either did early in the morning or late afternoon, which we found still hot, and then it was a free for all for the showers.

dragonfly63 Thu 19-Jan-17 16:54:51

I remember it well. I was in a wonderful relationship but he died in 1979 just a week before our wedding so the memories are bitter-sweet. My happiest memory is of holding a dinner party, one of those wonderful evenings where everything just goes perfectly and we all sat chatting, dancing, drinking and generally enjoying ourselves outside in the garden until about 5am and it was still a shade too warm. If I remember rightly it was gorgeous until the bank holiday when it rained.

middleagespread Thu 19-Jan-17 17:23:32

Working in Bristol in Midland Bank , Corn Street, in a office that was generally thought to be cold and unwelcoming.But then it was heaven, leaving the blasting heat, the pavements you could almost fry an egg on and removing my heels allowing the chill of the floor to creep up to my knees. Our bank manager even resorted to loosening his tie when the bank shut. Ice-cream from a booth opposite the Hippodrome before clambering on the bus home to Clifton. Blackboy Hill an interminable challenge when the bus overheated and stopped half way up. Oh for that heat now.

nicolajones63 Thu 19-Jan-17 17:47:11

My memories of the 1976 heatwave is going on a family holiday to Felixtowe. I remeber sitting on the beach and it was scorching hot

ctpulley Thu 19-Jan-17 18:02:55

I started work at the Austin factory in Birmingham. I volunteered for the night shift as it was cooler.

Carred Thu 19-Jan-17 18:07:28

I was pregnant summer of 1976 I thought it was even hotter than summer 1975 when I got married. It was great not having to work and to enjoy the beautiful weather even though I looked like a beached whale.

Stormlord Thu 19-Jan-17 18:25:23

I remember being on holiday at Skegness Butlins and there being an absolute plague of Ladybirds on a biblical scale.

woo69 Thu 19-Jan-17 18:35:55

I went on a camping/caving trip near Buxton, the farmer said we could only use the field if we brought our own water. The cracks in the ground were so wide we couldn't get the tent pegs to stay in. We wanted to have a walk around Ladybower reservoir but they closed the path because of fire risk. It was great to get underground it was nice and cool in the caves and passageways.

empire Thu 19-Jan-17 19:26:40

We picked that month to go abroad for the first time, so we could have stayed at home and got hot, rather than paying loads of money for the same effect.

Isis1981uk Thu 19-Jan-17 19:27:37

Unfortunately not, as I was -5 years old at that point :-)

littlefiona Thu 19-Jan-17 20:14:44

i got married on 26th june that year,seems a life time ago now.i can remember the weather was so hot and went on forever.i was a nurse at the time and doing a split shift,off i went to lymme dam to spend the afternoon and went back on duty with heatstroke,not a nice feeling.other than that its all a blur!