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Staying young at heart

Dianne Bourne
11/ 4/2008

THERE were evergreen starlets at every turn in Manchester yesterday. So we couldn't resist trying to find out the secrets to staying young at heart from TV presenter Esther Rantzen and actress and domestic goddess Jane Asher.

Esther, 67, tells me she's currently penning a book, If Not Now, When? about making the most of yourself - whatever your age - which is due out this summer. She says: "It's a very good time to be in your 60s. You can do what you want if you've got the health and strength. Older people are proving they've got a lot to give."

Esther was looking svelte and glam as she launched the new Staples stationery store on Deansgate yesterday, in her role as president of Childline, which the store has helped raise almost £120,000 for.

And how does she keep that slim figure? She muses: "I went through a long period of my life when I worried about my weight, and then one day I just thought I'd stop worrying.

"As one of my children said to me, no one ever got fat by eating at meal-times. And I always make sure I eat breakfast - that's key."

Meanwhile, further along Deansgate, The Diary asked baking supremo Jane Asher if cake could be the secret of her eternally youthful looks.

In fact, 62-year-old Jane reckons she's just been blessed with a naturally slim figure.

"I do have the odd slice of cake. But I've always been able to eat what I like - my teachers used to say it would catch up with me some day. Then people said it would be when I had a baby, then the menopause, but luckily it never did. I'm still waiting for this huge woman to catch up with me!"

Far from slipping into a slower pace now she's over 60, super chic Jane seems to be busier than ever - in Manchester to launch her annual Home Baker Of The Year competition, as well as running a successful home baking company. Not to mention a steady stream of acting roles, most recently as Queen Charlotte in ITV drama The Palace.

"There are so many more exciting roles for women now," she smiles. "At my age you might think they would be slowing down but now my children are grown up it's a really exciting time."