British Summer Time Begins

Things that made us us
This book does a decent job of trying to capture the essence of the British summer holidays from the 1930s to the late 1970s. A period before video games and cheap air travel. A time of free-range children who spent unstructured days unsupervised and bored. Parents based any (mostly British-based) “real” holidays on thrift and the ability to devise our own entertainment. Readers who lived through such things will be transported back to their eight-year-old selves.

So, why the low(ish) rating. For me there was too much of a focus on the upper and middle class. Yes, there are working class voices, but not enough. And while this book is nostalgic, it doesn't idealise the past. There's no doubt that this is a humorous book about a vanished world.