Excuse me, oh yes you can! My elderly labrador recently learned that there were toast crusts to be had from the breakfast table if she sat there looking appealing enough for long enough.

No, you're never too old to learn, though the 'toast/labrador' example is simplistic in the extreme.

More than half of people aged 50 and over hope to keep on working past the state pension age; most are still keen to learn and develop and more than twice as many aspire to get promoted than to downshift. In other words, many don't want to give up the day job: they want to become more involved.

Quinquagenarians are increasingly likely to combine part-time jobs with voluntary work, and a growing number of those past pensionable age are continuing in paid work.

As for those who have retired, the opportunities for learning new skills or reviving old ones are increasing in direct proportion to the growing number of 50 'plussers'!

From salsa dancing to psychology, from the local retirement centre courses to an Open University degree, there are opportunities to exercise those 'leetle grey cells', as Hercule Poirot would say. As for Miss Marple, her advancing years did nothing to hinder her phenomenal powers of deduction.

And it’s not just the physical benefits that you’ll feel: exercising the mind is just as important to our overall well-being. Tackling the daily crossword, using the internet or actively engaging in a night class can help sustain your powers of memory and concentration and possibly even stave off forms of dementia such as Alzheimer’s.

As one American researcher, Dr Gary Small of UCLA, put it, “If you keep your brain cells active it improves their efficiency. It’s the use-it-or-lose-it theory.”