Following the World Cup - by Dea Birkett

I have a nine-year-old boy who doesn’t like football. (I also have a nine-year-old girl, his twin sister, who doesn’t like football either, but somehow I feel no need to apologize for her.) So this forthcoming football frenzy with the World Cup leaves us cold. Despite all the tempting discounts, we feel no urge at all to visit South Africa. At least, not until it’s free from groups of grown men running around in matching t-shirts on patches of green.

So I flinched when my son was bought a book called 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa Activity Book. (They could have thought of a shorter title.) I knew he’d have to feign interest. He smiled politely – his mother has raised him with the very best of manners – and thanked the donor. Then he did something very odd. He sat down and began to read it.

‘It has all sorts of stuff about different countries,’ he said. ‘Like the flag of Slovakia.’ In fact, it has the flags of all the participating teams, usually as stickers so you have to guess which goes where. What a great game for a travelling family.

When I was about my son’s age, I had a poster on my wall titled Flags of the Commonwealth. It was my favourite possession. My friends and I used to test each other. How many stars on the Australian flag? Name two African countries whose flags contain the same colours? Flags are fabulous things.

So we’re following the World Cup by flag. We want the country with the most colourful to win.

2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa Activity Book is published by Carlton Books £3.99