Share a pic of the house you grew up in and win £100 John Lewis voucher -WINNING PICTURE ANNOUNCED

[RachelMumsnet]

To celebrate the publication of Lisa Jewell's latest book The House We Grew Up In we're inviting you to send in pictures of the house that you grew up in with a short caption.

Whether it's a shot of the exterior or a room indoors, a garden or even piece of furniture or ornament but all pics must be evocative of your childhood. Post your pics up before the end of 22 July, write a short caption, and we'll create a carousel of our favourite ten pics on 23 July. Each person who makes the shortlist of ten will receive a copy of The House We Grew Up in. Author Lisa Jewell will then choose the winning photo from the ten and we'll announce the winner on Thursday 25 July. The winner will receive a £100 voucher for John Lewis.

More about The House We Grew up in by Lisa Jewell

Meet the Bird Family

All four children have an idyllic childhood: a picture-book cottage in a country village, a warm, cosy kitchen filled with love and laughter, sun-drenched afternoons in a rambling garden.

But one Easter weekend a tragedy strikes the Bird family that is so devastating that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear them apart.

The years pass and the children become adults and begin to develop their own quite separate lives. Soon it's almost as though they've never been a family at all.

Almost. But not quite.

Because something has happened that will call them home, back to the house they grew up in - and to what really happened that Easter weekend all those years ago.

[eatyourveg]

This house was riddled with mice but it was great.

[teenyweenytadpole]

This is my house. I have lovely memories of this house, my Dad who died 2 years ago did so much work to it with his own bare hands, and looking at it now it looks awful, so characterless and soulless. The garden used to be lovely with a greenhouse and apple trees and now it is just a horrible bare stretch of green, there are awful built in wardbrobes and WTF they have done to the front room I don't know. Very sad.

[sharond101]

Nothing like where I live now but so many memories.

[muminthecity]

This is the block of flats I grew up in, right in the middle of one of the largest council estates in South London. It looks pretty grim but holds lots of happy memories for me. We never had any money when I was younger, I shared a tiny bedroom with my sister and we didn't have many material possessions, but we were showered in love and affection by our parents. All of our friends lived a stone's throw away and we spent many happy summers playing out on the estate. There was always someone looking out for us, so we had a lot of freedom. Our friends and neighbours were all in the same financial position as us, so I never really noticed that we were poor until I was a teenager. Looking at it now gives me a new-found respect for my parents, for managing to give us such a happy childhood despite their difficult financial restraints.

[muminthecity]

Hmm, that wasn't really a short caption, was it?

Can I change it to:

This is the home I grew up in. From the outside it looks a bit grim, but to me it was just a happy, loving home. Crime rates in the area were always sky-high, but for me it was the safest place in the world.

[ColdWinterNights]

The house with the white door is the one I grew up in.

So many happy memories there.

[Lioninthesun]

I would post a link to my school, but fear that would out me. That was me 6-16 anyway!
On the plus side, we had a pool

[Kikibee]

Lovely big garden, I had my own bedroom, just around the corner from infant school, life was simple then

[Julestar]

Celebrating the Silver Jubilee as a baby with my mum outside my first home in 1977. It was a tiny house in a cul-de-sac, with a lovely community feel.

[AnneEyhtMeyer]

In the garden with scuffed shoes, play-out clothes and a handbag - pretty much sums up the 70s for me.

[sarah1967]

This is a photo of the back of the house I grew up in. We were extremely lucky with a large back garden to play in.

[aristocat]

I have only lived in two houses, my own and the one I grew up in. My parents were kind, thoughtful and loving and I wish that we could 'turn the clocks back' and see them again. Our garden was always overflowing with flowers/hanging baskets and vegetables, Dad would be horrified to see it now.
Super memories, even though it has been sold 13years ago I still see it as MY house Thanks.

[emdottyjackson]

One of the many houses I grew up in! The Dartmoor Inn in Bovey Tracey, now turned into flats :( I loved it here, just a short drive from Dartmoor National Park and all the lovely locals were so kind to me when I was a kid. We had one chap called Laurie who painted an amazing steam train mural for us in the bar, I used to take him his drinks and keep him company for hours, he was a local legend!

[YoniBottsBumgina]

Similarly to others, my childhood photos are at my mum's house and I don't have any scanned in, but if I can find one I'll add it - my overwhelming memory of our 80s/90s house was the carpet in the living room, which had squares of red, blue, yellow and green all mish-mashed together like crazy paving. My sister and I used to hop from sofa to sofa, being careful not to fall into the lava or water squares, stepping only on the grass or cornfields. Hours of fun.

[WaitakereWaif]

Growing up in a house steeped in history kindled an interest in the past which formed the basis of my whole career!

[Bunnygotwhacked]

This is a recent picture of the house I spent my first 12 years in we didn't have central heating never mind sky tv. It's not changed much though and that driveway must still be lethal when it's icy

[LeMousquetaireAnonyme]

The opened window was my bedroom window. When we moved in that flat the whole building was a ruin. My chore was to get the charcoal from the basement. Someone even fired a gun into my bedroom window while I was asleep as he thought it was a condemned building. It looks very posh now!

[bluebump]

This is the house I grew up in, although when we moved the extension on the right hand side hadn't been built. When my grandparents bought it for my parents (in 1976 for £9k!!) it was a red bricked, 2 bedroom Elizabethan cottage so it has changed a lot. I remember when we had the extension built and we found an old bread oven in the wall. It was haunted too!

I have some brilliant memories of living there until I was 12 and we moved away. My favourite are from the garden that went all around the house and the field next door where we played, watched the local football matches and used to shout at the man who used to use ferrets to kill rabbits that used to burrow there. We used to love it when the cows came, they would come up to our garden fence and let us stroke them.

I probably would have died of boredom living there as a teenager but as I left at the age of 12 I only have good memories of living there!

[TheDeadlyDonkey]

Tis is where I lived til I was 9. My parents ran the restaurant downstairs, we lived upstairs.
There was talk of ghosts, there was always a spooky feeling on the stairs (where my sister saw a ghost!) but I never saw anything.
My twin and I used to sneak downstairs at night and chat to customers and steal After Eights
It was an amazing place to grow up in.
I have visited the place since, several times (a hotel now). It's very modern inside now, but it's fun spotting things that were there when I was little.
(Sorry, bit more than a short caption there!)

[Portofino]

My mum and me. One of the few pics I have. My grandad built in the porch for some reason, with chip board and frosted plastic.

[Xenia]

May not matter to most people but just be aware that if you post the photograph and someone recognises it you will be outed to those who recognise the picture. Most may not worry about that but it may be an issue for some.

[stokeseyk]

Here is a pic I took of where I grew up n Dublin - I took it the day it was being demolished. The place had a bad name but we were so happy living there. Our flat was the one on the left on the top floor!

Caption:
"The building & the bricks are gone
But our happy memories still live on
We felt like Royalty on the Top Floor
We'll remember the good times forever more"
xx

[Mintyy]

Does anyone know how to share an image from Google Streetview? I have found the house we lived in from 1963 to 1969 but don't have any photos of my own.

The house I really grew up in, from age 6 to 14 is down a private drive and streetview hasn't gone down there, I don't think.

[mrscog]

minty could you do printscreen then crop it in paint/photoshop?