The joys of a bond across the generations

Unlike many of the nation's grandparents, Gloria doesn't provide endless childcare for her four grandchildren and five step-grandchildren – her busy presenting career prevents that.

But she makes a real effort to see her grandchildren – who range in age from Lily, born this year, to Elicia, 18 – as often as possible.

"Just as you can't know what being a mother's like until you have your first child, similarly you can't know what being a grandparent's like until you have grandchildren.

"I think there's so much to be gained in both directions – I as a grandparent get enormous joy and fun out of just listening and watching them. There's great energy that comes from them, and I just love being in their company. I love their chatter.But I think children have a lot to gain from grandparents as well."

While Gloria stresses that she loves all her grandchildren equally, she has been especially mindful of Charlie, 16, and Gabriel, 13, who are her late daughter Caron Keating's children.

Caron died of breast cancer in 2004, aged 41, and Gloria promised to be Caron's "eyes and ears" as the children grew up.

Their father has since remarried and the boys have two little sisters, but she points out: "I am the only person left alive who knew Caron from birth to death, and that's why I'm an important link for the boys, particularly as they get older. I do feel that I have a role to play.

"I love all my grandchildren, but somehow there's a passion within me to always do what I can because she's not here."

Her new book, Glorious Grandparenting, is, she says, partly about her own experience and love of being a grandmother, and partly about the experiences of other grandparents and the issue of legal rights for grandparents to see their grandchildren.

Last year, she helped The Grandparents' Association launch its campaign to get the law changed so that grandparents do have legal rights of access to their grandchildren.

"I've taken up the gauntlet for the hundreds of thousands of grandparents who don't see their grandchildren because they have no legal rights to, usually because of divorce, sometimes because of death.

"I think it's terribly sad that children are used as pawns, because I would have thought that at times of divorce or death, the grandparents could be the solidarity for the children."

Like many grandparents, Gloria enjoys playing with her younger grandchildren, and her garden has a wilder area that they call "the jungle", where they make dens and climb trees, and she says: "I love to see that, rather than them watching TV or playing with IT stuff."

She takes her older grandchildren ten-pin bowling and gets them concert tickets, and last week she took two of them to the live Alan Titchmarsh Show she was in, and says they loved it.

She sometimes took her own children to programmes she was appearing on, and suggests it's simply history repeating itself.

As well as her own experiences and the problem of grandparents'

lack of legal rights, Gloria's book also looks at issues including grandparents as child carers and when to take a back seat.

"As a grandparent you have to learn to sit back and wait to be asked advice," she says.

"Sometimes you can't help yourself and you leap in – parenting has changed a lot since my day."

Glorious Grandparenting is published by Vermilion, priced 16.99.

GRANDPARENTS' LABOUR OF LOVE

A RECENT report on the number of grandparents acting as carers for their grandchildren, by Grandparents Plus found:

Four out of ten grandparents are raising a child alone

More than half have given up work or reduced their hours to take on care of a child

Six out of ten have a chronic health condition or disability

Seven per cent don't receive any kind of benefit for looking after a child

Two-thirds have a household income of under 300 a week