Why do islands have such a powerful hold on our imaginations? Perhaps it's that we were raised reading Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe and Five on Kirrin Island. Perhaps it's just that they represent a physical promise of all those abstract emotions we yearn for in a summer holiday - a sense of isolation, peace, and a feeling of escape from our workaday worlds.

In this Sunday's Observer Escape, we picked 20 European islands that have escaped the attention of mass tourism. There are Mediterranean gems like Procida in Italy, an island of just four square kilometres that's dotted with multi-coloured houses and surrounded by peaceful rocky coves. Further afield is La Graciosa, which is just a 20-minute ferry ride from package-holiday favourite Lanzarote, but is home to just 500 residents and boasts long stretches of entirely deserted beaches.

But Northern Europe has its own delights, too - from Finland's Kvarken Archipelago, 7,000 islets scattered in a 150km long arc, to our very own Walney Island, a nature lover's dream just off the Cumbrian coast.

Of course our list is subjective and we know we'll have missed out some absolute corkers, so now we want you tell us about your favourite European hideaways, whether it's a dramatic, windswept rock off Scotland or a forgotten sun-baked outpost of Greece. The more obscure, little-visited, isolated and peaceful, the better.