In a Daily Mail column, Sarah Vine writes that the long summer holidays leave her craving fewer people and an early return to routine, expressing relief at the approach of autumn rather than nostalgia for August. The piece is a light-hearted, personal opinion article rather than a hard news story, reflecting on family holidays, childhood memories and the trials of travelling with children and pets.

Vine describes looking forward to cooler weather, cosy evenings and the end of holiday irritations such as airport delays, expensive tavernas, insect bites and demanding children, while admitting most people secretly share her dislike of the summer despite pretending otherwise. She contrasts her own restlessness with a friend who genuinely loves summer chaos and another who spent an entire holiday quietly reading indoors, whom Vine admires, and links the widespread summer fatigue partly to social media's relentless holiday-highlight culture.