A month ago I shared with you the first three beta read reviews for my new memoir - Summer of '77. Three more advance readers have now finished the book and posted their reviews on Goodreads. If you are a Goodreads member you can read the originals here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48126395-summer-of-77
Otherwise, you can read copies of the reviews below.
Otherwise, you can read copies of the reviews below.
I was interested to read this book as I too was addicted to Ibiza and specifically to Es Cana, where this book takes place. Easy to read, honest, and strangely addictive, it is hard to put down once you start reading. As a teenager or young adult of the 70s it will bring back memories, some good, some OMG moments - did I really do that? The lust for travel, for experiences, for leaving the humdrum life of the UK as a young adult are all brought to life. Highly recommended for a few hours reliving the feelings of youth, freedom and recklessness.
Rich, racy and risqué!
In warm, sunny places like Ibiza, the sexual revolution was purring along in overdrive. If you are an unfortunate like me and missed it, Robert Fear’s intimate memories and confessions will tantalise and tempt you with what might have been, even permit you to enjoy that period vicariously. If you lived those warm summers of sun and seduction, it will bring back warm memories.
Post the twin freedoms that followed the ‘pill’ and Britain’s entry into the Common Market, Mediterranean beaches drew the brave and the beautiful, the lovely and the lusty, the ardent and the adventurous.
Robert Fear takes you there and shows you exactly how it was. Sunshine, work, friends, beers, bars and beaches – and all those nubile and oh-so-beautiful young people pursuing the same mission that has stimulated men and women since Eve offered Adam a nibble on her fragrant little apple.
In warm, sunny places like Ibiza, the sexual revolution was purring along in overdrive. If you are an unfortunate like me and missed it, Robert Fear’s intimate memories and confessions will tantalise and tempt you with what might have been, even permit you to enjoy that period vicariously. If you lived those warm summers of sun and seduction, it will bring back warm memories.
Post the twin freedoms that followed the ‘pill’ and Britain’s entry into the Common Market, Mediterranean beaches drew the brave and the beautiful, the lovely and the lusty, the ardent and the adventurous.
Robert Fear takes you there and shows you exactly how it was. Sunshine, work, friends, beers, bars and beaches – and all those nubile and oh-so-beautiful young people pursuing the same mission that has stimulated men and women since Eve offered Adam a nibble on her fragrant little apple.
I’ve read quite a few of Fred’s books now, and this is probably my favourite. Fresh, funny, and extremely well-edited/written, it tells of a summer of love and coming of age which shaped a young man’s future in a way that mirrors my own experience. While Fred was climbing ladders and doing up the Bee Gee’s villa on Es Cana in Ibiza, I was shinning up ladders on an Israeli kibbutz. Also, I managed to do a Club 18 to 30 holiday – of which there is much mention – on Ibiza myself, though the lethal Hierbus aniseed and herb liquor which lays Fred low on one occasion wiped the memory of my whole trip.
I really liked how the author collates his experiences as a bar man on Es Cana for six months alongside letters from home and personal reflections on life in the 70s. Wages were low, but so were prices, and we take so much for granted nowadays. Who remembers the bread strike of 1977? And who remembers Marc Bolan going to the top of the hit parade just after he died?
This is another fascinating time capsule from the pen of Mr Fear, and I would totally recommend it. Written in almost diary format – lots of little chapters with a rotating cast of characters – it benefits from great dialogue (g’wan Fred, turn it into a screenplay!) and fine descriptive passages on the island Fred tours by moped. Speaking of which, I laughed out loud at Jasper Carrot singing ‘Funky Moped’! Though all is not fun and laughter, there are hard knocks too, and Fred has some hard decisions to make…
I really liked how the author collates his experiences as a bar man on Es Cana for six months alongside letters from home and personal reflections on life in the 70s. Wages were low, but so were prices, and we take so much for granted nowadays. Who remembers the bread strike of 1977? And who remembers Marc Bolan going to the top of the hit parade just after he died?
This is another fascinating time capsule from the pen of Mr Fear, and I would totally recommend it. Written in almost diary format – lots of little chapters with a rotating cast of characters – it benefits from great dialogue (g’wan Fred, turn it into a screenplay!) and fine descriptive passages on the island Fred tours by moped. Speaking of which, I laughed out loud at Jasper Carrot singing ‘Funky Moped’! Though all is not fun and laughter, there are hard knocks too, and Fred has some hard decisions to make…
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