THE ex is on exercise Iron Triangle in Cornwall. He is away until Christmas because after Iron Triangle he has to go up north for something called CAST. The military love an acronym. Then next year he is away a lot.

My son has music lessons with former music producer Anthony Clark, who lives next door to me.

He has toured with acts such as T’Pau, Haircut 100, Joan Armatrading, Rick Astley and Bay City Rollers to name but a few.

Last year, he and Ben worked together on a track he recorded for the CITV programme My Phone Genie.

Ben sang a piece where the pots and pans came to life in the show.

Last year, Ben was in boarding school. But now he is back at home with me. He had drum and guitar lessons at boarding school and he loves writing his own songs so we wanted to carry this on. In September he began weekly music lessons with Ant.

They decided that rather than do boring scales and exercises, they would write a song. They squirreled themselves away in Ant’s studio, also known as a shed, and a song predominantly written by Ben called Messed Up World was produced.

These are the lyrics:

It's a messed up world

But I won’t let it get me down

As long as I can hold my ground I will be safe and sound

Fighting everywhere T

here is no more peace in the air

Bodies lying everywhere

I am really scared

Everything is grey and black S

moke is coming out of my hat A glimpse of light comes from the sky

And everything is once again fine

People are alive and singing

The world can be so lovely yes it can

We should all be happy and never sad If we could stop the fighting and end the war

We could all be happy for ever more

Forever more

When I asked him why he wrote these words, he said: “I want the fighting to stop so that children don’t need to be away from their parents anymore. I don’t think children should be away from their parents.”

“Did you write it because Daddy goes away so much?”

“Yes.” he said.

Ben was born in 2003. Every year of his life since then, apart from this year, his father has been sent to a war zone.

l Messed Up World by Ben Macnaughton is available on i-Tunes for £1, in aid of SSAFA, a military charity that supports the serving and their families.

You can listen to it at youtube.com.