“When you’re old, you don’t give a toss what anyone thinks, really, so you feel very free. You can have a snooze in the afternoon, and nobody thinks that’s odd.”

Dame Prue Leith is celebrating her perceived joys of the golden years as she prepares to discuss “Growing Old Disgracefully” with fellow authors Gyles Brandreth and Kathy Lette.

The trio will take to the stage at this year’s Cheltenham Literature Festival on 15 October to prove to the audience ageing is “not the dreaded thing” it is made out to be, the former Bake Off judge said.

Dame Prue said: “You come into your own, you don’t care what people think, you’re not going to change. And so the world has to just put up with it.”

At 86, the restaurateur and cookery writer has reflected on her younger years and has decided that growing old is good fun, although she acknowledged it may be different for those who are “old and lonely and ill”.

“When I think of my teenage years, I think they were really stressful,” Dame Prue said.

“I was always bringing the wrong boys home, and I was quarrelling with my parents, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do.

“I was sort of lost and didn’t believe in myself at all… I wanted a boyfriend, couldn’t get one, you know. Old age is unstressful.”

The talk at The Times and Sunday Times Forum in Montpellier Terrace next month will not be Dame Prue’s first time at the festival, which launched in the spa town in 1949.

She last appeared at the event in 2018, but outside of her career, she is no stranger to the area.

“I love Cheltenham; I often go even if I’m not doing anything, but it’s a great festival,” she said.

On screen, Dame Prue showcases her nearby home in Prue Leith’s Cotswolds Kitchen, which, she said, gives her an outlet to be “a bossy woman”.

“I’ve persuaded my husband to come into it, and he’s very funny,” she said.

“It’s quite domestic, and it’s filmed in our house, so that’s even better. It’s a great house, and I’m very happy here; I’m in the middle of the Cotswolds.

“We built this house four or five years ago, and it’s got a great garden… I’m looking out the window as I speak and it’s just rolling Cotswolds, fields, can’t see a single building.”

Growing Old Disgracefully will be held at The Times and Sunday Times Forum on 15 October at 13:00.

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