MPL Communications Ltd / MJ KimPaul McCartney wrote his new children’s book Hey, Grandude! so he’d have something to read to his own grandchildren. In the book, Grandude has a magical compass and can whisk his grandkids off on various adventures. Of course, no one gets hurt — but as McCartney reveals, his actual grandson recently found himself in a life-threatening situation.
Speaking to The Times of London, McCartney says one of his older grandchildren was mugged in London at knifepoint; the mugger took his phone.
Macca, who was mugged as a kid in Liverpool, tells the Times, “He was saying the worst thing was that he should have just thumped the guy; he came back and felt a coward. I said, ‘No, no, no, no! The guy had a knife and you don’t know, the guy might be able to use that knife.’ So it is scary these days.”
“When I was a kid, it was four guys and they nicked my watch,'” he recalls. “I was of a similar age…and it was the same feeling. [I thought at the time] ‘I have got to learn karate and be a black belt — and then I’ll get ’em!’ It was the worst thing.”
Paul, who has eight grandchildren, aged seven to 20, says overall, he finds being a grandparent a lot easier than being a parent.
“You are less responsible. The parents are going to say how much screen time they can have and see to it that they go to bed on time,” he explains.
“You [as a grandparent] don’t have to bother with that. I like the babysitting thing because you can spoil the kids a bit. I picked up a rug in America that says: ‘Grandchildren spoiled here!’”
Hey, Grandude! arrives September 5.
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