I like little old ladies. And I’ll repeat that in case, in a family newspaper, you thought you’d read it wrong. I like little old ladies.

And there seem to be a great many of them here in Oxford.

Of course, like any group of ‘sistas’, LOLs (Little Old Ladies) like WAGs (Wives And Girlfriends), MAWs (Model, Actress, Whatever) and RATs (Ripped and Tanned) have their own sorority ‘uniform’.

For instance, if you’re a WAG you sport skin-tight D&G trousers and Gucci tops, strappy Gina heels and Dior Addict lip gloss and always, but always, have your Louis Vuitton luggage close to hand.

On the other hand, if you’re a LOL it’s predictably a tad more conservative: always a headscarf (normally from the Edinburgh Woollen Mill), spectacles (Boots or Vision Express), a neck scarf (M&S), a beautiful coat (Jaeger, naturally), a long skirt (Hobbs, almost certainly), thick tights (don’t ask me...) and comfortable shoes (Clarks, Ecco, M&S).

In short, it’s a kind of hybrid Last of The Summer Wine-meets-Sex And The City look.

But unlike the WAGs, MAWs and RATs, the one thing a LOL always wears...is a smile.

My favourite LOL is a woman I often spot in M&S. She dresses impeccably, beams at everybody – whether they acknowledge her or not – and always looks gloriously dignified.

Whoever you are ma’am, you have style.

My other top LOL is a woman I’ve seen occasionally at the Phoenix cinema in Jericho. And always coming out of a film you’d bet good money she’d never want to see. Yet, no matter how graphic or how explicit the images on screen, she always emerges from the darkened auditorium as if ‘lit up’ from inside, happy to talk about the rights and wrongs of directors Eli Roth (Hostel), Tarantino (Kill Bill) and Pedro Almodóvar (Volver).

And then there’s the LOL I see in Headington, walking stiffly but fiercely, who sometimes stops to sniff the air and smile at passing motorists. There’s a sparkle there you just know their bus pass will never extinguish.

These three I know, but there are plenty of others I see who sport the same intense energy.

And every time, I can’t help but grin. After all, these women really do embody ‘girl power’ – they’re funny, they’re smart and 70/80 years of life hasn’t cowed them.

I don’t think they’re monied; none I’d guess have led blessed lives, and few, I’d wager, are members of the WI. But somehow, despite everything, they’ve kept their passion – their fire – alight.

I may be wrong but I don’t really think there is a male equivalent. From what I can tell, we tend to lose our youthful zest by the time we hit our...well, in some cases, 20s (although civil servants are probably pre-disposed towards slippers, cardigans and a sour outlook from birth).

So thank goodness then for the LOLs.

Not only do they put the WAGs, MAWs and RATs to shame, but they remind us all that growing old can, against all odds, be a thing of beauty.