Here's some refreshing news for those parents who increasingly despair of their sons ever ungluing themselves from their consoles: a book containing vital information on playing conkers, constructing paper aeroplanes and climbing trees is currently topping Amazon.co.uk's Hot 100 Books.

According to UK paper The Mirror, sales of The Dangerous Book for Boys - written by former English teacher Conn Iggulden and his theatre director brother Hal and released last month - have rocketed by 700 per cent in the last week.

Other simple pleasures featured in the book include treehouse-building, stone-skimming and catapult manufacture. Naturally, pirates and dinosaurs put in an appearance, as do Douglas Bader, Lord Nelson and Scott of the Antarctic.

Conn Iggulden explained: "We wrote it to be a compendium of all the things we wanted to try and to know when we were very young. It's the attitude that we wanted to recapture - when everything was interesting and danger was fun. You can't stop boys being curious, so they might as well have the tools and instructions to focus that curiosity."

Amazon's Kes Nielsen added: "Despite the popularity of iPods, My Space and video games, the success of this book seems to indicate a return to the simpler childhood pleasures of 50 years ago." ®

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