As well as bringing back childhood memories of tricks and games that still amuse today (such as pretending to break an egg on your child’s head by patting and squashing a loosely formed fist), the book also includes bang up-to-date stuff like how to create a 3D image on your computer by arranging two photos taken from slightly different angles side-by-side on the screen.

The chapters include ‘Fun with everyday objects’, ‘Batteries not required’, ‘Are we there yet?’, ‘Puzzles, tricks and jokes’ and ‘What where who why how?’. Each chapter has dozens of things to do/make/say. And there are plenty of illustrations to demonstrate things where required.

I really don’t think I’m ever going to run out of ideas with this book – the real challenge is deciding what to do from all the great things suggested. So far, my daughter just thinks I’m full of fun things to do (like creating shadow animals, making duck calls out of drinking straws or being the tickle robot), because I’ve secretly read up on it….I’ve toyed with sharing the book with her, but that would take the magic away.

I anticipate many years use out of this material – there are some science experiements which would probably occupy 10-12 year old minds successfully.

The authors have also set up a web site with a forum for Dads to share more stuff with each other.

One of the final entries is a list of fun stuff to mess with your kids' heads, like "There's a little man who lives at the back of the fridge to turn the light on when we open the door." If you're looking for more of this kind of stuff, I'd also recommend 'Great Lies to Tell Small Kids' by Andy Riley.

If you ever have to entertain children buy 'Dad Stuff' and you'll be totally sorted.