Blake Morrison, the coast of north Wales Photograph: Blake Morrison"The longer I stay, the more familiar everything seems. Bilingual signs are still the rule (“Golff”, “Parcio”, “Brekwast”). The beautiful secluded cove at Porth Ceiriad is still reached by parking at the farm, paying your fee and walking down. The roads round Llanengan are still so narrow you have to back up to let the other car through. If London weren’t six hours away, the area would have been “discovered” and wrecked by now. But it hasn’t been"Photograph: Gareth PhillipsMaya Jaggi, Lake DistrictPhotograph: Maya Jaggi"I was unaware of this history as a child, but the things we notice change even if the places do not. In Storrs Hall I was startled to come across an Indian miniature among the oil paintings. It struck me that there must have been historical ties between imperial India and the English Lakes long before my parents chose to holiday here"Photograph: Christopher Thomond/GuardianStuart Jeffries, Isle of Wight Photograph: Stuart Jeffries"Because we were from the landlocked Midlands, Britain’s coastal bits seemed amazingly exotic. Even now, as I crest a hill and see the sea for the first time, I feel my heartstrings pull and an old Detroit Spinners song swoon through my head"Photograph: Mikael Buck/Solent News and PhotosHannah Pool, north CornwallPhotograph: Hannah Pool"The beach looks almost exactly the same as I remember: only the van selling fair-trade cappuccino, and the recycling collection point mark the passage of time, and with it the kind of place this resort has become. I also notice, with disdain, that almost everyone in the water is wearing a wetsuit, the wimps"Photograph: Jim Wileman
