How do you remember the summers of your childhood? For Laurie Lee they were flower-crested, heady, endless days.

Here is an evocation of summer like no other – a remote valley filled with the scent of hay, jazzing wasps, blackberries plucked and gobbled, and games played until the last drop of dusk. Lee’s joyful and stirring writing captures the very essence of England’s golden season. Selected from the book Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee.