ARE YOU A COOL KID... OR A CRANKY CODGER?

Astonishingly, a third of youngsters don’t know who John Lennon was. But then would YOU know who Lil Yachty is or where you’ll find Spoons (no, not the cutlery drawer)! Our fun quiz for teens and parents will leave both sides groaning

So much for his band being ‘ bigger than Jesus’. It emerged this week that a third of children aged six to 16 have no idea why John Lennon was famous (with one speculating that he ‘discovered glasses’) — while 15 per cent say they have never even heard of him.

By contrast, 82 per cent know who Sir Elton John is — and only 8 per cent had never heard of Sir David Attenborough, making him possibly the most down-with-thekids nonagenarian in the history of the human race.

It’s funny what children do and don’t pick up on. It reminded me of when my daughter was very small and, having just begun to read, picked up my father’s treasured copy of the album Let It Bleed, by the Rolling Stones — the one with the cake on the cover.

A couple of days later, she asked me, ‘can we put on Jimmy Shelter, mummy?’

‘Jimmy who, darling?’ I asked her.

‘You know, grandpa’s favourite singer, the one who likes cake: Jimmy Shelter.’

It took me a while to work out that she was referring to the title of the first song on the album, Gimme Shelter, which she had misread.

Ever since then, mick Jagger has been known as Jimmy Shelter in our house.

But for all they get in a muddle about the adult world, there is even less that we adults understand about theirs. Especially when they turn into teenagers.

It’s not just the mysterious text-speak, or the unfathomable slang, it’s people, places and personalities central to their existence that never even cross our radar.

So I had the idea of setting my two teenagers (Bea, 17 and Will, 15) a quiz to determine how much they actually knew about the culture of my generation — and asking them to do the same for me.

It was quite an eye- opener, for myself and my husband, as you will see . . .