Best summer reads - win £400 of brilliant books

The Summer of '67. Aged 16 & totally miserable at home, left my factory job to work in glasshouse production, thinking how great a suntan I'd soon have. Saw a gorgeous brown skinned guy stripped to the waist on my first morning at work who winked at me.He persuaded an English speaking workmate to ask me out, we got engaged that weekend & married a few weeks later. I didn't even know his age until we wed on a Wednesday morning in the local Catholic church. 50 years on we're still together, hasn't always been easy but we've two beautiful daughters & lovely grandchildren...I've never regretted the Summer of '67!

Hard to choose between the summers of 1970 and 1980 - the first one was when, aged 15, I went on a school exchange trip to Cannes to stay with my French pen-friend for 3 glorious weeks. It improved my French enormously, met some very handsome French lads and came back with a great tan. The later one was when I got married and then spent 3 weeks in California, staying with my late brother and sister-in-law, having flown with good old Freddie Laker airline. Great memories! Think I'll plump for the second one!

The summer of 76 will stay in my memory for ever. A time of growing up and first real love, I was head over heels and could think of nothing else and now all these years later I can remember it so clearly, the hot summer, the excitement and anticipation. First love is always special. Reading for me too creates many pictures in the mind and can also encode special memories. What would life be without a good read!

The summer of 1983, my first with my first as a mum.

It has to be the long hot summer of 1976 when I had finished 'O' levels and the weeks stretched out before me. With all tension and anxiety gone and nothing to do but read for pleasure and relax in the sunshine it was a wonderful summer. This was funnily enough followed two years later with exactly the same experience when I finished 'A' levels in 1978 same hot sunny days, same sense of freedom.

On a narrow boat on canals of Staffordshire slowly travelling through the countryside, mooring at pubs along the way. Picking blackberries, having barbecues and a glass of wine or three.....

'76 for me too! I spent most of it on the beach in Westward Ho! - lovely!

Summer of '71, got my degree, bagged a husband, started teaching, all my grown up life ahead of me, still haven't grown up!

Oh those long lovely summers when as a family we would pile into my dad's tiny car and head to Sandbanks, eating cockles and winkles that we had collected ourselves in Poole harbour, using rakes made from nails hammered into a strip of wood. Happy days.

So many summers, I love the sunshine. A summer when I went abroad for the first time. I was 20, a road manager for a band and we had a 6 week gig in a club in San Tropez, South of France. With a little villa near the beach. It was a memorable wide-eyed, jaw dropping summer, seeing how the other half lived.

My best summer was 1969. My first daughter was born just after Christmas 1968 and it was so lovely to take her out everywhere and just generally enjoy being with her all summer

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Growing up in Rhodesia, our summer holidays ran for 6 weeks over the Christmas period.
This was always the hottest time of the year and we spent most of those lazy days at Mermaid's Pool, a natural water and rock formation in the bush some miles outside of the city of Salisbury.
We took it in turns to zoom down the water on inner tubes or use the 'foofie slide', a line connected to a tree branch which was used to sail acros the void and drop into the water below. no worries about health and safety then! - we all survived somehow!
Magical memories...

My best summer is now. Living in our dream home in a wonderful location. Could not be better

We married in Spring but as we were both working, we didn't have time to decorate and paint our new home.

The weather forecast had been predicting stormy showers and gales for our Summer holidays, and instead of spending money on going away, we decided to buy paint and wallpaper.

We spent most of the summer painting walls and experimenting with colour, and choosing wallpaper for 'statement' walls.

We have since decorated quite a few times, but never had as much fun as we did that summer.

1970, young free and innocent my best friend Linda and I thought we were. Having just left school we felt so trendy.We hitched a lift to the lake district and had a fantastic week camping. Returning home the summer continued with days in the park, rowing on the river and generally hanging out with friends.What love sick teenagers we were, our favourite records we played endlessly were Tears of a Crown, Third finger left hand, (Cant remember the full title).

My summer - a little bit different. My husband and I are housesitting in deepest Surrey whilst our son and his wife are away.We are responsible for one dog, two cats, four ferrets,five hens and forty sheep so never a dull moment!

My best summer happened when I was 17 years old. I'd just finished my highers ( Scottish equivalent of A levels) and was free of studying for six weeks. The sun shone, the music was amazing, the world seemed full of possibilities, I had a summer job and money to spend. Happy days with friends, music and fun

Best summer was in the USA - Philadelphia, San Francisco, Portland. Sunny and warm everywhere we went, lots of craft beer tasting, street food, bike rides, friendly people!

Last year holidaying in Llandudno with my husband and son, we stayed in a lovely cottage with a garden and the weather was glorious.

Best summer ever, was last year, (2016) first year of retirement and played golf with my new girlie friends

August 2015 has to be one of the highlights - my youngest daughter got married ..... it wasn't just the wedding that was the highlight but that my 2 children who live abroad came and brought their 6 children with them, so I had my 7 grandchildren in one place at the same time - something that hasn't happened before!! It was wonderful! Since then I have another 3 grandchildren but cannot imagine we will have another photo opportunity with the 10 of them in one country again for a very long time.

Summer 15 going to Wales with son daughter and their families after a rough 18months it was just so good to spend quality time with them all .

Hard to choose- so many summers. So perhaps just a brilliant moment from an otherwise hard working summer. Working as a chambermaid in the summer hols before college. It was hard work. These were the days before en-suite bathrooms, when most rooms had a chamber pot under the bed. Some people even used them! And the chamber maid had to empty them. But we had an evening off and all us student chamber maids went to see Mary Poppins. We walked back over the bridge in Scarborough singing "Chim, chiminey". The stars were shining and the lights glistened below us. A fairy tale, magical moment in the world between child and adult life.

The summer of 1976. I had just left school, college was 8 weeks away and the sun shone and shone. Bliss!

The summer of 1961, when, as a young teenager I was allowed to fly alone to Belfast to stay with a friend who had moved there with her family a few weeks before. It was so exciting meeting up again and I can still remember the huge (well it seemed so at the time) weeping willow in the garden where she and I used to hide from her little sisters. Her family took us on lots of outings. It just remains in my mind as one great big summer adventure.