Pen And Paper

I think my Desert Island Discs luxury item might have to be pen and paper, particularly if I'm lucky enough to take my kids with me to keep me company. With pen and paper, there are just so many great games to be enjoyed together as a family.

Top of the list has to be Word Consequences. Each of you has a piece of paper and writes down the name of a girl or female (preferably someone you all know) then folds the top of the paper down to cover it up. Everyone then passes their paper to the person on their right and writes down "met" followed by a boy's or man's name. Fold down and pass on again and then write "at" followed by a possible location for a date, e.g. "behind the bike shed" or "outside the loos at Paddington station". Keep folding and passing as you make up something that "She said" and "He said", then add a final consequence, as obvious or random as you like, such as "They both lived happily ever after" or "They squashed bananas all night long and turned into bright blue aliens". Fold and pass for the final time then open up your papers and read aloud.

Another all-time fave is Start With A Squiggle, a really good one to remember if you've got a handful of kids of different ages to amuse or if you've got a child asking you "What shall I draw?". Everyone scribbles down a quick squiggle in the middle of the page - by a squiggle I mean a simple line or two, a shape, a doodle, anything that's not too complicated. Pass your squiggle on to the player on your right. Look at the squiggle in front of you, turn the page any which way you like, and turn it into the start of a new drawing. So for instance, some curvy lines that look like a top of a cloud could also be a sheep, a dinosaur with bumpy back or a frog's head with bulgy eyes. If you turn it on its side, it could be a monster's hand coming round the door. If you turn it upside down you have the start of a comedy car with lots of wheels. Younger children are particularly good at doing the initial squiggles and will enjoy watching their older friends turning them into masterpieces.

And if island life isn't as idyllic as you'd like - maybe those pesky parakeets are keeping you awake all night or those blimming mosquitos are getting more food than you - you can let off some steam by writing a diary or drawing a calming picture of the sunset. Perfect! Come to think of it, scrumpling up some paper to make earplugs or rolling up a page to make a fly swat may be a better idea.