It's a question often asked by women: what is the right age to have a baby? But what about the father's side of the story? Five dads - Tony Parsons, Blake Morrison, Antony Beevor, Ken Livingstone and John Simpson - share their thoughts
Recently I was walking down the street with my four-year-old son Rafe on my shoulders. Gripping my hair with both hands, his own long hair blowing in the wind, he rode me like a mahout rides a baggy old elephant. "Oh, Mr Attenborough," said a passerby, "what a beautiful granddaughter you've got." It was kindly meant, so I didn't correct him; though it occurred to me that no one probably ever calls Sir David Attenborough John Simpson. As for Rafe, having a father old enough to be his grandfather must also create problems of identity. Are there any compensating advantages?
When he was born, various Fleet Street harridans wrote that having a child at 61 was selfish and irresponsible of me; what made it their business, I'm not sure. But four years later, I think it's actually helped him. I am much less irritable and pernickety than I was with the two daughters from my first marriage, 30 years ago. When Rafe wipes his runny nose on his sleeve or blurts out a rude word, it never upsets me. My experiences in unpleasant places have shown me there are worse things than sniffing or saying "bum".
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