‘Holidays’ is the theme for the Telegraph Creative Writing Group July short story competition. A comment by a fellow Facebooker about the Memories of Sand inspired this month’s story.

What makes a story? Apart from the geological insights, I have added some personal memories of much revered family friends, photographs of the Normandy beaches taken on holiday in July 2010, the name of a girl who was once at infant school with my son (to please Maggy), my husband’s dislike of sand, and a remark made by a lady to whom I recently sold our folding bikes, about not being able to get into Ouistreham for the D-Day ceremonies. Not much happens in the story, some subtle shifts of attitudes perhaps, but it’s all about how we remember. Holidays are the most ephemeral of creatures, after all.