A holiday can change everything… banking.
Challenges lay ahead.
This would be no holiday.
He needed a place to stay and to find work that would sustain him through the next six months.
This true to life memoir follows 21-year-old Fred’s adventures as he acclimatises to living abroad. In a time before instant communication, he keeps in touch with family and friends by letter. They are his lifeline to home.
If you enjoy reading about people’s life-changing experiences, then this book is for you.
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“Summer of ‘77” is a slice into Mr. Fear’s life when he was 21 years old. After taking a vacation to Ibiza, Spain, Fred, his nickname, went back the next year to stay six months. He walked away from his job and girlfriend and found a place to live and work. I loved being back in the 70s, it was such a different time. I could imagine being on the island and walking through the streets with Fred. There was hard work involved, but also a lot of partying and enjoying female company. This is a journey of a young man who was determined to explore more than his corner of the world. I not only loved seeing this through his eyes but being able to read the letters he received from back home. I felt that gave a balanced perspective. This was a page-turning read that I thoroughly enjoyed.
In 1977, Robert Fear set sail on a big adventure to the island of Ibiza. Arriving ahead of the tourist season, he finds cheap accommodation and employment for six months, first as a labourer and later as a bartender.
I enjoyed the authors mix of diary entries, letters from home and musical highlights that brought back memories of my own youth. The use of travellers cheques and the prices he paid for accommodation, food and a large bar tab are also included, and make for interesting reading.
Robert works hard, and enjoys a number of romances with attractive young holidaymakers.
This is an honest memoir of a time that shaped the authors love of adventure and travel.
Clubbing ’77 style in Ibiza!
After spending two weeks in Es Cana, Ibiza, Spain in 1976, Fred and his mates aim to return in 1977.
Fred remained determined and was the only one to do so. Although, his mates have plans to join him at some point. He arrives right before the height of the tourist season and returns to a familiar pub to drum up some work and a place to lay his head.
Fred settles in quickly and things start falling into place. He visits places he remembers from the year before and spends time soaking up sand and sun before starting in as a laborer.
Things heat up as the tourist season starts and he begins bartending. Which comes with its own set of problems.
Written with intense honesty about this time of his life and it takes you back to a time of carefree abandon of the 70’s. Being of the same age as Fred, I remember this time well.
I was glad that Fred saved all the letters he received from England from that time and he includes them in his story well. Some from his family, girlfriend at the time of arrival in Ibiza and from girls that he meets in Ibiza that return to England.
An enjoyable read that flows very nicely.
I enjoyed it so much!
This was a very enjoyable memoir. Well-presented and polished, this is written from letters etc. the author has kept from his time working a summer season in Ibiza when he was 21. I love memoirs written from diaries and letters. Good to see actual extracts from the letters included here, also pictures of memorabilia of his trip, eg. a ferry ticket.
He says, the summer that changed his life. Intriguing. And what followed was certainly honest and revealing.
After leaving school Robert Fear worked in a bank. He’d holidayed in Ibiza before and looked forward to going back there. He wanted to go abroad for six months. This trip was in 1977, a few years before his 1981 trip covered in his earlier book, ‘Fred’s Diary 1981: Travels in Asia’. I do like diary format and enjoyed his other travel book. But I know some don’t enjoy that format as much. I like the way this is written and it will perhaps have wider appeal. I can see how his writing has matured since his other book. I think it is his best book yet.
I started this straight away, even though I was 70% of the way through a true crime book. I found it interesting, and quick, easy reading.
I liked the links to YouTube-eg. the Boogie Nights track (and others). Atmosphere. Sort of like a book soundtrack. Being a musician, it really added to it for me. Some World News at the time is included, via a letter from his father.
Another trip of a lifetime, an important time in his life, not just a short holiday, but a whole season in these parts. Certainly varied adventures! Lots of things happen in these few months. Not repetitive at all.
A fun book. Many people I know have worked abroad for a summer season, or a year. At holiday resorts, or nannying. A scary experience for me, so not one I would have had the courage to do. Fair play to those who do, and when they write of their experiences, to let us have a nosy-it can be very entertaining!
I like the way this is written. It’s been very easy reading. Entertaining and enjoyable.
I read many selling up and moving abroad memoirs. This is a little bit different for a change. A young man, widening his travel, working a season in Spain. You would imagine work, play, sleep, and that it would be repetitive. It’s not. It’s an honest, revealing, and thoroughly entertaining account of a memorable time in the author’s life.
Rich, racy and risqué!
Sin and sun beat virtue and virginity.
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 tantalize 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 thoroughly enjoyed this memoir from Robert (aka Fred) Fear! As he took me along with him on the many adventures he had in Ibiza during the summer of 1977, I never lost interest or got bored. That summer changed the author’s life. It was not all roses. He had to work hard at different jobs to make ends meet. He slept in a tiny room and shared a bathroom with other tenants. But the magic of the island outweighed the discomforts. Mr. Fear gave me an inside view of moving to a foreign place and becoming a local. He immersed himself in the culture, the people, and the jobs he had to work in order to stay the entire summer. It became apparent throughout the story, that he grew through the experience. His confidence increased and his determination to have more adventures grew. This is a well-written memoir. The author made me feel as if I was there with him. I found it to be highly interesting and entertaining. Anyone who loves to read true stories will surely enjoy this one!