I'M ON the phone to one of the nation's favourite agony aunts.

Virginia Ironside is on her way to Bridport this weekend to reassure people that growing old isn't all bad.

Her 'granny stand-up', as she calls it, will encompass topics such as free drugs, fun funerals, grandchildren and sex.

And, speaking to me on a slightly dodgy mobile phone connection from Anglesey, her measured, calm and thoughtful responses to my questions reflect the sage within.

In fact Virginia started off as a journalist and became an agony aunt.

She said: "The funny thing is that by nature I think I am unapproachable.

"But when people talk to me they find me to be warm and friendly, they seem surprised.

"I love it when people confide in me.

"I was a journalist and I had a very unhappy childhood.

"My mother was a serious career woman who was an alcoholic and was depressed.

"She was trying to kill herself. I had been her carer for a long time and the whole thing seemed to be a bit of a pre-requisite for being an agony aunt."

Virginia, a grandmother of two who lives in London, said the main thing she has realised over the years is that everyone encounters problems at some point in their life.

"People can come across as bubbly and full of life, but anyone can have all sorts of problems and inadequacies.

"It's good for people to remember that they are not alone.

"The main thing about agony columns is that it's like going from a minor key to a major key, there's a sense of resolution, there's comfort being given and there's healing."

Virginia has become a bit of an expert on ageing, writing a column in The Oldie magazine about 'being a granny' and has written 15 books, with titles like 'No! I Don’t Want to Join a Bookclub!' and 'No! I Don’t Need Reading Glasses!'.

Virginia said: "By nature I'm a pessimist so I find it strange that people seem to go away from my show with a feelgood factor but they seem to find that.

"The show is observational humour about what it's like being old, the aches and pains - but the joys too.

"There are wonderful things that you wouldn't think of like you grow in confidence, you have sex but it doesn't have to play an important part in your life.

"It's much easier to be friends with men without sex being involved.

"You have a much wider range of friends, young people and old people.

"When you are younger you are only really friends with people of your age.

"It opens up a whole new life to you and a whole range of things and the world really is your oyster."

The show, appearing spontaneous, has a tight script to it, Virginia said.

She has taken the show all over the country where it mostly attracts an older audience.

"There's a gossipy element to it and people who come along seem to be very relieved to realise that other people are are just as unhappy or as confused as they are there's a huge empathy with unhappiness."

Virginia has visited Bridport before and said she doesn't have many memories of the town, apart from buying a mechanical cat.

"Unfortunately I don't have any connections to Dorset but I think it's a lovely place.

"I have appeared just down the road from Bridport before (at this point I ask her whether it was Lyme Regis and she can't remember).

"But this mechanical talking cat I bought from a toy shop

Another great thing about getting old, Virginia says, is being able to make fun of old people.

"I'm allowed to make jokes about old people because I'm old myself.

"If a young comedian tries to make a joke and old people then it doesn't go down too well.

"I only have to say the word 'arthritis' and I get laughter."

So with this show focusing on sixty-somethings, is this current generation of people in their sixties younger than ever before, I ask.

"I think every generation thinks that they are younger than the one before.

"It's funny though, I remember my granny at 60 with white hair and now you get people in their sixties focusing on looking good, keeping fit and dancing.

"In a strange way I think my attitude to life is more liberal and hedonistic than young people who sometimes seem rather puritanical to me!

"I'm always being lectured by my son about not having bags for life or eco lightbulbs.

"It seems like a strange turnaround in the generations to me.

"In the past the older generation were disappointed with the younger generation and now it's the other way round!"

* Growing Old Disgracefully is at the Bridport Arts Centre tomorrow night from 7.30pm. Contact the arts centre box office for tickets.