Best summer reads - win £400 of brilliant books

Summer of 1966 was great. Hearing music on Radio Luxembourg, watching the World Cup and swimming every day without a care in the world!

Summer of 1963 and I was seventeen. This handsome man turned up to navigate for a car rally that I was on, my friend was supposed to be the navigator but she was rubbish at map reading. We spent the whole of that summer getting to know each other and it was the happiest I have ever been. The romance lasted longer than the summer, we will have been married 50 years in October.

The summer of 76, the year of my GCE's terrible results but remember had the best sun tan ever!!!

Camping with all of my family in Bude Cornwall. ..Watching them body board and eating pasties on the beach ?☉??⛱

Unbeknown to me,my husband booked and paid for a fortnights cruise of the Mediterranean, on the incredible QE2.We were treated like royalty and the memories of how wonderful it was ,will live with me forever.

25th Wedding Anniversary spent in the Maldives. I was really worried as hubby had booked a diving course whilst there but the instructors let me go out on the boat with the divers and I saw so much sea life it was unbelievable. Fantastic islands and the staff were all so friendly. We were there for a fortnight and I loved snorkeling to the coral from the beach (not brave enough to do the diving). Evenings spent barefoot in the beach bar and restaurant (didn't wear any shoes the whole fortnight). Such a relaxing and fantastic holiday would love to return.

One childhood summer holiday in Cornwall with my two brothers and a load of cousins, playing handkerchief hide-and-seek in the sand dunes - such fun when there is a goodly crowd of you.

Camping with husband and new Labrador puppy 1980

spending two weeks in new york with my grandson. there was a heatwave, but we still managed to see all we wanted to see. highlights were the african burial ground, and louis armstrong's house in queens. just a wonderful two weeks!

Last Summer, our first with our daughter and her newly adopted son , a wee smasher .
Hope this summer is as much fun

The summer of 1973 when my then new husband and I went camping in Cornwall with our very best friends Brenda & Noddy. The tent was small, the airbeds were lumpy, we had to wash our hair in a bucket. We got fresh milk & eggs from the farmer and every morning Noddy did a big fry-up of sausages, bacon, eggs, beans which we ate with fresh bread cooked by the farmer's wife every morning. I don't think I've ever eaten food as tasty as that since.

Sadly, Brenda died a few years ago but when we get together with Noddy we still talk about our wonderful summer holiday in Cornwall.

My best summer was the one between finishing college and leaving for university. Long days spent enjoying the sunshine with a great bunch of friends. A world brim full of opportunity and exciting plans for the future!

One of my best summer memories is sitting in the back of a van with two of my daughter's goats which she had just purchased. Both goats were nervous and we took two buckets filled with goat feed which calmed them down and because they were busy munching, they were fine.
That was my first close up meeting with goats and they were lovely.

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!

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"

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

libbyann