A celebration of older age

Actor Prunella Scales, 76, says: "I'm of a generation that doesn't expect automatic happiness, so I feel incredibly lucky." Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty

"I walk in [to work] every morning," says 77-year-old Labour politician Dennis Skinner. "I can still do three or four miles on the flat." Photograph: Phil Fisk/Observer

(l-r) Fauja Singh, 98, Armuc Singh, 79, Karnail Singh, 80, and Ajit Singh, 79. Photographed in Glasgow before competing in last month's Edinburgh marathon. "Elderly people are like little children, they like attention," says Fauja Singh. Photograph: Murdo Macleod

"I don't look my age, I don't feel my age and I don't act my age," says 76-year-old Joan Collins, pictured with her husband, Peruvian born-Percy Gibson. "To me age is just a number." Photograph: Myung Jung Kim/PA

Fashion designer Mary Quant, 75: "I can't imagine not working, really. I just think work's more fun than fun." Photograph: Karen Robinson

(l-r) Lady Trumpington, Lord Bramall, Lady Butler-Sloss and Lord Paul photographed at the House of Lords. "My attitude to death is that it will happen some time, and there is nothing I can do to stop it," says Butler-Sloss, 75. Photograph: Suki Dhanda

Sculptor Anthony Caro, 85, in his London studio. The key to old age, he says, is continuing to work and "doing something you like doing". Photograph: Suki Dhanda

(l-r) Celebrated philosopher Lady [Mary] Warnock, 85, and her sisters Stephana Thomson, 87, and Jean Crossley, 100. Their fourth sister, Grizel Balfour, 96, was unable to attend the photoshoot. "I like feeling connected to the world," says Crossley. Photograph: Phil Fisk

"70 isn't really old these days," says yoga teacher Pam Horton, 71. Photograph: Suki Dhanda

Honor Blackman, 83, poses for the Age Issue fashion shoot: "I've worked since I was 16 - the idea of stopping is appalling." Photograph: Jason Hetherington

Jazz musician and composer John Dankworth, 81. "Sometimes I catch myself resting and I have to force myself to hurry up," he says. Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA