Dr Margaret Birge doesn't play bingo or attend her local Darby and Joan Club, although at 86 she feels that is what's expected of her.

The pensioner from Liversedge is the oldest member of Cleckheaton's University of the Third Age, which she has been attending for eight years after refusing to become idle in her retirement.

"The University of the Third Age gives so many older people - who might have left school at 14 to get a job - the chance to develop their minds and skills again," said Dr Birge, a tutor-liaison officer.

"In my classes I had two female students in their 70s who went on to study for degrees in art history at Leeds University - they were inspired.

"We try to offer opportunities for older people to get back the basic interests they weren't able to pursue when they were younger." She added: "Fifty is not old - you can start a whole new career.

"Old people who stop work go to the Darby and Joan Club or play bingo. I have found that most people my age are not really interested in anything except their health, their grandchildren or shopping.

"An active mind is extremely important in maintaining a healthy body. Mental activity is what keeps you interested in the world and keeps you young."

She enjoys the classes so much because she can mingle with people of different ages and keep in touch.

"I lazed around for a year or so after my MA in 1990 and got very bored, so when I saw the advert for a tutor in the paper I applied to teach art history."

Born in California, Dr Birge has led a colourful life. At the age of 13 she was sent to Paris with her half-brother Dudley to study French civilisation and also studied at the renowned Sorbonne University. In addition, she has studied at the University of California and at Berkley University.

Her career as a psychotherapist saw her work in Beverley Hills for 30 years, even treating the occasional celebrity.

"I even went to Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland with one patient who had to lay some ghosts to rest," she said.

l Details of Cleckheaton University of the Third Age's new classes will be available from Cleckheaton Town Hall on Friday, September 8, between 10am and 2pm. Enrolment day will be held in the main hall between 10am and 1pm on Friday, September 22. For further information contact Peter Lyne on (01274) 686103.