It was Mark Twain who famously wrote "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years."

Here in Spain, Father's Day is celebrated on 19 March, a chance for children and offspring of all ages to doff their collective caps and thank the old boy for his sterling work. He may also get some socks.

In a celebration of all the top-notch dads quietly going about their business, I thought we could take a look at some of the most celebrated fathers in history, in no particular order.

When he wasn't bobbing around the Galapagos islands on his ship the Beagle, Charles Darwin was deliberately working from home in order to be able to spend more time with his ten children. He encouraged them to indulge in dangerous play - rope-swinging, object-hurling, etc. - while also taking the time to personally nurse them whenever they needed it. Those two parental approaches may or may not have been directly connected.

American president Theodore Roosevelt also deserves his place in the pantheon, as he would often, and specifically, take time off from running the USA in order to spend it with his six children. Family pastimes included regular pillow fights and a good deal of mud-wrestling, which are - as anyone knows - two of the most important staples for a quality dad. We should also note that Roosevelt had the teddy bear named after him, which, while not direct evidence of good parenting, has certainly ensured his name has lived on on the lips of children down the generations.

Now, while, at first glance, it might seem rather contradictory to say so, the eighth-century Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne was actually a good father to his, er, 20 children (different times), insisting that both sons and daughters were educated to the highest of standards. Oh, and he also pardoned his son Pepin the Hunchback for a plot to assassinate him, commuting his death sentence to time spent in a monastery. Those were some admirable dad skills right there.

A little bit more recently, Paul McCartney has shown himself to be a devoted father to his five children over the years, eschewing nannies in favour of doing a lot of the more mundane stuff himself, including the school run and attending his children's concerts, presumably resisting the urge to correct any poorly-executed F# minors into the bargain. Also, it should be noted, writing Hey Jude to comfort John Lennon's son Julian after his parents' divorce is no small feat when it comes to showing a strong paternal instinct.

And finally, although I did say this would be a list in no particular order, I think many of us might agree on who, in the end, should take the top spot in any compilation list of the greatest fathers in history - our own.

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