b'FEATUREPAUL MCCARTNEYmore like How to CatchWait a minute, I dont want a Star [a picture book byto get too serious about Oliver Jeffers].this. I am not a childrens author, I am a songwriter and Once he could read,a performer kinda thing. McCartney remembersKinda thing? I just wanted it tucking in to Treasure Islandto remain loose.by Robert Louis Stevenson (I was given that as a kid)The grandchildren have and Anna Sewells classicgiven their seal of approval. Black Beauty, whichThey have read it was lovely. I was alsothemselves. They like it, I given [John Bunyans] Theam very glad to say. He is Pilgrims Progress, whichnot reinventing himself as a I didnt get on with. It waschildrens author, however. one of my aunties who wasI dont want to become the Photo_Oli Gilltrying to educate me andeyeball of David Walliams, cleanse my soul, he sayshe says, archly. Its too with a laugh. Not muchmuch like work.chance of that.Parenting, he says, is fargood for their physical well-I tell him that I like how hisharder than grandparenting.being. I think if you are too Grandude is not afraid toYou are less responsible.mollycoddled then it can be put the kids in challengingThe parents are going todangerous because if you situations; a two-fingerssay how much screen timeare in a situation where you up to risk-averse culture.they can have and see toneed to react quickly youre McCartney pauses toit that they go to bed onnot ready for it. So I gave consider. I agree withtime. You [as a grandparent]them quite a bit of physical you, he says, but it wasntdont have to bother withfreedom.conscious. I didnt reallythat. I like the babysittingI congratulate him on his worry aboutadult children whether it wasand their Photo_ Kubacheck PC or not. Theyachievements: just had fun.Heather, the holidays every year withMcCartney chuckles. Butcotton salesman and jazzIts a rainy day,Wait a minute, I dont want toartist; Mary, the them. Earlier in the monthas I went through it, itpianist. I didnt know mythey are bored he was in the Hamptons,became more and moregrandparents, they diedand grumpy,get too serious about this. I amphotographer; where McCartney has ainappropriate. It was a littlebefore I was born, either onthey discovernot a childrens author, I am aStella, the family house and Stella hasraunchy, you know, and themy mums side or my dadsthat Grandude isfashion a cottage. That is mainlykids loved it, of course. Andside, he says. magic and hassongwriter and a performer designer; when I read to them. I thought, I dont know thisthis compassand James, One of the reasons he wrotepoem!well, I knew it, butMy mum and dad werentwhere he canthe musician. the book, he says, was toI didnt know exactly how itthe reading-to-childrentake them toThey appear have something to read towent. Its kind of a boy andtype, my dad had fixed upall the placesgroundedno the grandchildren. Im nota girl talking. Its this littleheadphones in the bedroomon the postcard. The otherthing because you can spoilmean feat. Well thats nice stuffed with kids books, Iromantic, flirting thing goingwhich went to the radioimportant thing for me wasthe kids a bit. I picked up aof you to say that, thanks, did all of that. So now, whenon. The kids were gigglingso we listened to the radiothat it wasnt too long,rug in America, that says:he says. We certainly tried the kids come to stay, Ias I was digging a hole forinstead of reading a book.because some of theseGrandchildren spoilt here!to not have spoilt brats have grown-up books, youmyself. It was fun and theRadio Luxembourg was hisstories go on for ever andand tried to treat them like know? joke is that they keep askingEnid Blyton. you are asleep before theHe says he was alwaysmost of their schoolmates. for it every year. Grandude,kids are. And I wanted it topretty laid-back about a bitI remember asking the One evening when theread the poem! they say.It was only when I grew upend with the kids going toof rough and tumble. Myother parents, What do grandchildren were over heThats why I did the book,and had kids of my own thatbed to get them nice andkids always used to climbyou give the kids for pocket was so desperate that heI havent got many kidsI thought to read to them,sleepy. over the sofa and jumpmoney? I didnt want to go turned to poetry.I had tobooks left any more. and they loved it, things likebehind and off, sometimesany higher than they were. read to the kids that night soNarnia [The Lion, the WitchHe says he was never goingthey would fall, but youOur kids werent Little Lord I looked for a suitable poemMcCartney does not recalland the Wardrobe by CSto produce a dystopianjust cross your fingers andFauntleroys. [He puts on and hoped that it was suitablebeing read to as a child,Lewis], the famous ones.door-stopper. When Ithink, I hope they donta toffee-nosed voice] Oh, for bedtime. He chose angrowing up in Liverpool withHarry Potter was too late,started writing it, it fell offhurt themselves. By andI get 20! They are great E.E. Cummings anthology andhis mother, Mary, a maternityLord of the Rings was toothe end of the pencil, I waslarge they didnt and theykids, they have their feet on started on May I Feel Said He. nurse, and father, James, aheavy and complicated,just having fun. I thought,learnt how to fall, it wasthe ground, so thats nice.18 SEPTEMBER 2019 HEYMUSIC.COM 19'