Full of sunlit, unhurried afternoons and opportunities to reconnect with friends, it’s time to give September the credit it deserves. Lucy Vine raises a glass to the month of neverending summer

At the risk of alienating any weather-grumps out there, I’m going to start by saying this in caps: GOD I LOVE SUMMER. I love the sun and the paddling pools and the noise from literally everyone in the world standing outside my local pub. I love people at work turning up in shorts and moaning happily about back sweat. I love constantly losing my sunglasses and looking blank when my mum tells me the names of the blooming flowers in my garden. Summer is clearly the very best of seasons. Full of joyful socialising and people actually smiling at each other.

What I don’t love, however, is this thing we all seem to do whenever the end of August arrives – that oddly British tradition where we all look at each other and go: “Well then, that’s summer done for another year.”