Annabel Karmel, bestselling author

I would ban the teaching of Latin and ancient Greek and introduce poker, bridge, backgammon, cooking and skiing lessons instead. These are much more relevant and useful in later life than most of the subjects you learn at school. Cooking would be particularly useful - if children learnt how to make proper food, they would grow up to be better eaters. At the moment, how to make rock cakes is about as much as you’re taught - and then you’ve got to take them home for your parents to break their teeth on.

Live life backwards from 40

As soon as you hit 40, you would start living life backwards and die as a baby. That way, everyone would live to reach 80, but would enjoy the second half of their life with an increasingly fit and youthful body, as well as a more incisive mind. I’d love to be in my mid-20s again, with the all the experience of being 60.

Find a cure for cancer

So many of my friends have been affected by this - it comes out of the blue and ruins lives so young. It’s very frightening. It would be great to find a cure.

Live your partner’s life one day each week

For example, if you’re a housewife, your husband would spend one day a week at home looking after the children while you go to the office. Men don’t appreciate how hard it can be to stay at home all day. I would also engineer it so that we could spend some time as a member of the opposite sex. Women would benefit enormously from this - we are very sensitive and get upset about small things, and men have no idea. If we learned how the other sex works and how they think, we would understand each other better. It would be very good for communication.

Speed up travel

Instead of taking 24 hours to get to Australia, it would only take two, and you could get to the Alps in 20 minutes. Imagine what weekend getaways would be like. I’m sure planes will become obsolete one day, and we’ll have machines traversing the earth at the speed of a space rocket. At the moment, having to get to the airport two hours before your flight and arriving at your destination feeling shattered spoils the pleasure of travelling.

Younger kids would be more confident

They would bypass the awkward puberty stage and have the confidence to speak to people. My son, who is 16, likes going out with girls but can’t speak to them. Communication skills come quite late on in life, but it would be far better if you could acquire them earlier.

Everyone would try new activities

If you don’t do something as a child, you tend not to do it as an adult either, which is a shame - a new challenge keeps you feeling alive and makes you more interesting. I’ve taken up rollerblading and bridge recently, and they’re both brilliant.

Unlimited eating without weight gain

I’m very greedy and adore my food. It would be lovely to indulge myself as often as I like without getting fat.

Annabel Karmel has written 12 books on cooking for babies, toddlers and young children, including her bestselling The Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner. She will be at The Baby Show, at Glasgow’s SECC from Friday to Sunday (www.thebabyshow.co.uk)