Take a seat

Do you have any objects that just completely epitomise a moment in time for you? Deckchairs remind me of a summery day, spent at my Nana Dorothy's house with my cousin Sally when I was about 7. Sally and I spent lots of Saturdays together there, so I'm sure it wasn't just the one day that we played with deckchairs, but this is the one day I'll always remember.

We started out by jumping off the patio, which had a bit of a ledge, over the dog daisies onto the lawn. But we got in trouble for that, because we kept accidentally kicking the heads off the flowers. So we set up camp in the garage at the back of the house with two hugely seventies deckchairs and a bottle of Sainsbury's apricot squash. The bottle had a green snake on it. It was hot and hazy, I wore a bowler hat and Sally a straw one. We played quite happily for hours and drank the whole bottle of squash. Although we got a bit of a ticking off a the time, my Nana found it hilarious and used to tell me the story over and over.

Deckchairs remind me of the happiness and safety of childhood. They're so benign, so English, so innocuous. British people have a tendency to want to manage every element of their environment; if we're to go to the beach, we'll take a picnic and towels and parasols and wind breakers and proper chairs, because we don't want to sit on the floor, that would be daft. I find it so funny that my Nana used to set out these deck chairs on her patio in her tiny, little garden, just to enjoy the sunshine. Because that's what we Brits do in summertime, we set aside time and we enjoy it, in the proper fashion.

There are a selection of wonderful deckchairs available, like these Caxton Rhode prints from Southsea Deckchairs, featuring vintage tattoo design, which cost £480 for the set.

I also love this Underground Deckchair, which can be found on art meets matter for just under £75.

If you are lucky enough to have someone to share a deckchair with, you might be interested in a Wideboy deckchair, for £109 from Deckchairs UK.