rosebuds.

Byline: Anna Wintour

I've long believed that the peculiar bliss of summer is connected to feelings of recurrence. Whether at the beach or wandering away from the office for a balmy lunchtime stroll, we are always in search of a lost time: those seemingly endless holidays of our youth. Our annual Escapes issue is founded on this notion. This year you'll find stories that refer to our most resilient daydreams: a Brazilian beach, an African safari, the chance to go through the world as a beautiful and languid adventurer.

So we start, as always, with fashion. Prints are perfect for this summer, and the larger and more graphic the better. This is the climax of a trend we have celebrated in recent issues, and one that will take you through the fall. And to emphasize this issue's preoccupation with echoes, we asked many of our May cover girls to come back and show us the best ways to wear tie-dyes and florals and Op Art swirls; we've also asked them to divulge their travel style secrets. These are, after all, professional drifters: No one knows more about how to carry on coolly in the most tropical and transitory situations.

And no one would seem in greater need of such know-how than Lucy Sweeney, the Slummy Mummy of Fiona Neill's hilarious new novel. We are proud to bring you an extract from what will be, I'm sure, a literary phenomenon to rival Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary and Allison Pearson's I Don't Know How She Does It-both of which ...