The Saturday briefing

Is there anything you're yearning to know? Send your questions, on any subject, to the contacts given below, and we will do our best to answer them...

- by KAY HARRISON

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Q My daughter has had twins and I was telling her about the Walton sextuplets – how did they cope with six back then?

Debbie Robinson, Chelmsford, Essex

A Janet Walton will be getting her standard six Mother's Day cards tomorrow – she made headlines around the world in November 1983 when she gave birth to the first all-female sextuplets: Hannah, Lucy, Ruth, Sarah, Kate and Jennie. All six were delivered in four minutes, at odds of 104 billion-to-one.

Janet was told at 16 she would never have children but after her 13th course of fertility drugs, she got pregnant and spent six months in bed and in hospital in Liverpool, with her mum bringing in local potted shrimp – her craving.

She made it to 31 and a half weeks, and took the babies home two at a time, with all of them out of hospital after three months.

Husband Graham, a painter and decorator, gave up his job for a year, thanks to payments from press and documentaries, so they could parent together.