We have all experienced a summer that was more passionate, more wild or more bizarre than any other - when a journey turned our thinking on its head and the world exploded with new meaning and excitement. This may have been at a pop festival in the early 70s, amidst the patchouli oil and loon pants, or on a family holiday in a caravan in Tenby, where it never stopped raining and there was nettle soup for tea - every day. Maybe you were stuck on the Pakistani border in 6000-mile journey in a Morris Traveller, or hanging out with French teenagers on a school exchange holiday in the 80s, selected the best stories from the Independent's 'That Summer' column - now in it's tenth year - along with fifteen newly commissioned pieces to celebrate the column's first decade. This is a book for anyone who has ever been on, dreamed of, or wanted to explore the open road - or the back of a camper van in Gunzburg.

Simon Calder is one of Britain's best-known and most well-liked travel experts. He has been travel editor of the Independent since 1994 and, in 1996, started working as a presenter for The Travel Show on BBC2. He currently reports for BBC Radio 4 and BBC1's Heaven and Earth show, as well as being a regular contributor to the Travel Channel and Conde Nast's The Traveller.