Best summer reads - win £400 of brilliant books

A mark warner holiday on Lemnos. Everyone tried things they'd never tried before including me and it was so much better than we expected

My best summer was when I was at school. The summers seemed to last forever. Now I blink and they're over. Although today is a cracking day too x

My best summer was taking my grandkids on various trips ...to Zoo, cinema, seaside and enjoying their company.

Has to be the year I left school. A summer of freedom before starting work, so many years ago now tho

The summer I left school and started my first job.

Gotta be 1977, so much happenend in my life, Left school, started a new chapter at college, met my future husband. Was chosen to visit Switzerland with the Guides, the Queen's Jubilee street parties, and one long hot summer before Exam results!

My first holiday abroad to Spain. My husband and I travelled to the Costa Brava on a Lambretta scooter and stayed just south of Barcelona. Our single storey hotel was right on the beach and there was a natural harbour which was bliss to swim in. Apart from the sea urchins that is which hid in the crevices of the rocks one had to clamber over to get out.
The road down into the bay was too steep and narrow for cars so the village was quite unspoilt. I'd like to go back now to see if it's changed. I doubt there'll be any high rises.

Why is this still being advertised on 18th July when the closing date was 19th June?

My best summer holiday was the the one I would remember every year since - it was the last summer holiday I shared with my husband. He had decided we would stay in the UK and go to his home county of Devon. I'm now catching up on his reading, the books he enjoyed, and finding out why - they were not my choice then but I'm finding them surprisingly diverse and so interesting, they have opened up my range of literature.

I grew up in Zimbabwe, got married after Uni, and we had an extended honeymoon "overseas" having never been out of Southern Africa - spent a couple of idyllic months in London exploring all the places on the Monopoly board, then bought a cheap camper van and travelled around Europe till we ran out of money! Our budget was $10 a day each, it was a wonderful summer, our first in the Northern Hemisphere!

I have had some fabuous summers and a few rubbish ones. The one I loved the best though is when I was lucky enough to get a move of house from a 5 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom ground floor flat. I had some mobility problems and I knew they would get worse so needed to get rid of the stairs. I was also taken away by my eldest daughter which fell when I moved so the family sorted the furniture out for me and I had a lovely holiday with my granddaughter and daughter.

1976.
Exams over
Blind Faith and Hope that the future was going to be wonderful

i also escaped the weekly chore of cutting my parents lawn. It was burnt to a crisp

libbyann

1981 was my best summer by far, my precious son, Stephen was born; on 6th June to be precise. He was a joy to behold and completed my world. From summer to summer I proudly watched him grow from baby to toddler, from little boy to teen and finally into the handsome, most caring man he became.
Thirty five happy summers past then my world fell apart, Stephen took himself to Heaven on 10th November 2015. No more does the summer sun shine for me, without my son there is no sun. I am however eternally thankful for the thirty five wondrous summers he was here on earth.
This is dedicated to my beloved and much longed for son, Stephen, who is now my precious Angel.

I hot married in February, did not like the cold weather as I came from a hot country and came to England and enjoy the hot summer time

My best summer was 1976. It was not nice in the beginning of the year as it was my first cold weather in England . Then the hottest summer came and I was very happy and could stay outside in the sun. Few interesting things happen that year...hose pipe band, priest from India were praying so it will rain.

My best summer was a child i n the seventies when the sun shone all day and I played with my friends in the park, paddling pooland on the tennis courts. I fell in love for the first time

Summer of 1960, between junior school and senior school. I lived out in the country on a farm and had few friends as it was too far for them to walk and not many had cars. I was let free to wander in the woods and fields, and did often. On bad days I was always indoors with a book,good days on my own I laid on a rug out in the garden with a book. My best friend Margaret came to join me fairly often and we walked the dogs of a neighbour. Two spaniels Penny & Paula (mother & daughter)we loved them. We had such good fun and really enjoyed that summer. At the end of the summer holidays her parents moved with her to I think Sutton Coldfield, but I either lost the address or never had it, I can't remember which (bad memory these days!). So it ended sadly for me but I enjoyed it while it lasted.

Last year my daughter got married in kefalonia. It is such a beautiful island. The people couldn't do enough for her and her husband to be.They we're married in a tiny chapel and their venue was outside over looking the mountains and sea. It was breath taking. The man who owned the venue gave us so much food, drinks and dancing. Kefalonia is a little piece of heaven.

I remember camping with browines. We travelled in the back of a lorry alongside the luggage, although we did not travel very far it was before rules were introduced regarding seatbelts etc. We could not see where we were going but everyone behind us could see us. It was great fun. When we arrived we stayed in a hall on camp beds because girls were not allowed under canvas then. We had a grass field out the back to play games and there was a path at the end over a stile which led us down to an old railway line where you could go for long walks, scavenger hunting and there was a small brook for tadpole spotting. It was a great week as the weather was lovely.

In the summer of 2006 I got married to my lovely wife who I had originally met at primary school when we were 8 and at the age of 11 we were parted after the eleven plus exams. She went to a girls school, I went to a boys school.

In 2004 we met again through Friends Reunited after a period of 45 years and since then have been featured in newspapers and been invited onto radio shows.

In the in between years our paths had crossed so many times without actually meeting, we'd had the same friends, lived in the same area and just never been in contact.

Anyway I digress in June 2006 we married, the day we got married was the hottest day of that summer, and we had our families together for the most wonderful day and as we'd all stayed in the same hotel we breakfasted together the following morning.

We honeymooned by the side of the Red Sea with a visit to Petra, in Jordan which was on both of our bucket lists.

We now done all the traditional things for people of our ages, take the £9.50 holidays from a well known paper, retired (well, I will be on 1st October this year before I hit 70!) and downsized to our little bungalow but we still remember and talk about the summer of 2006 fondly.

Lots of "Best Summers", but one which sticks out in my mind was from about 1972 when my friend and I rode pillion on our boyfriend's motorbikes and took our camping equipment over to Europe. The rain followed us down to Biarritz (we liked the name as there was a new drink called Biarritz at the time) so we crossed into Spain at Zaragoza. Came home via Andorra and Paris, making the ferry just in time. Met some lovely people during those two weeks and saw some lovely places; repair job in the mountains with bandoliered men carrying rifles walking by in the days of Franco. Quite an adventure for us really, and us still teenagers!

My best holiday, was in 1979, when I spent two glorious weeks in Dawlish Devon, with my friend Helen, and her family, We swam, rode horses, read., sunbathed, She even cut my hair, ( I told her to just put in a pony, and cut, so it was below my collar, and it looked great) I am still friends with Helen, we catch up on line and meet up. when she isn't working,, I have to say, that was the best holiday ever, even topping the holiday with my then boyfriend (a week in Spain, ) who is now my husband, As Bryan Addams said " Those were the best days of my life"

1976 a blazing sunny far too hot summer.
Went to Hyde Park and being fair skinned done possibly the worst thing i could have...I fell asleep for three solid hours and when I awoke was badly sunburnt.
I certainly regretted it for some days afterwards!