SHE squeezes her jam-packed social life around working in the City and touring the country interviewing rock bands.

In one week alone she went to a house party in Chandler’s Ford with the band Frost*, the Royal Festival Hall, in London,the Electric Ballroom in Camden,Fat Lils in Witney,Oxfordshire for a prog rock gig and even managed to make it to an arts project based in a disused church in High Wycombe.

This might sound like the lifestyle of a 21-year-old.

But Alison is 55 and she says her life now is more adventurous than ever before.

In fact, according to Alison, life began at 50.

It’s for that reason Alison, a former Hampshire Chronicle chief reporter, has been singled out as a role model for women over 50.

Underwear company Playtex and TV presenter, Linda Barker, scoured the country to find three women to be the face of their Ageless Generation campaign – exceptional women over 50 who reflect just how fabulous, confident, positive and stylish the modern fifty plus generation is.

It comes as research carried out by the underwear company revealed that nearly half of women are more content with life since turning 50.

Wearing a trendy blue military-style jacket and a “Je Suis Avec La Bande” slogan T-shirt, Alison said: “Since I turned 50 five years ago, my life has completely changed for the amazing. I discovered social networking and I am now fulfilling all the dreams I had 35 years ago when I wanted to be a music journalist. I feel like I’ve gone full circle and I feel incredible.

“I’d much rather be 55 than 25.”

And it’s no wonder Alison was chosen.

By day, Alison,from Winchester, bounds onto the London Waterloo train for her role in communications for the British Council.

At night, when she’s not out socialising at gigs, she is travelling the country interviewing bands and reviewing concerts.

Even though progressive rock has been a passion of Alison’s since she was 12 and enjoyed listening to music by a band called Curved Air, her enviable lifestyle as a rock queen only began when she turned 50.

After a marriage breakdown, Alison discovered social networking where she began connecting with other music fans and even met her partner Martin Reijman through the site.

Her talents at music writing were spotted online and now she writes for influential publications including Classic Rock Society magazine and Classic Rock Presents Prog magazine.

And websites the Dutch Progressive Rock Page,Music Street Journal, Progarchy, and Background Magazine.

Daily Echo:

Photography by Michael Bowles, styling by Debenham's personal shopper, make-up by Kate Morgan and the bareMinerals team.

Alison, whose favourite bands include Yes, Genesis, Rush, Steve Hackett,Big Big Train, The Tangent, Lifesigns, Pallas, Magenta, Cosmograf, Galahad and Transatlantic, said: “I’m 55, but I don’t feel it at all. My motto is you have to make each day count,treat life like an adventure and keep an open mind and an open heart to everything.

TV star Linda Barker, who chose Alison out of the hundreds of applicants, said: “We selected Alison because she shatters the outdated notions that older women can only look forward to a life of sensible underwear and a pair of comfy slippers.

“Alison is vivacious, positive about life and adventurous. She represents what today’s 50 plus women are all about.”

Follow Alison on Twitter @Alisonscolumn

"Why I feel better in my 50s than in my 20s or 30s..."

  • You no longer bow to peer pressure about how you look or dress. You just do your own thing.
  • You don’t care about the minutiae of the lives of “celebrities” you have never heard of. You have more important and enjoyable things to do.
  • The music you were listening to when you were growing up has stood the test of time and is still preferable to anything now being played on BBC Radio One.
  • Your heart-throbs and heroes/heroines have also grown older with you.
  • You realise that most of what your mother told you back then was absolutely right.
  • You understand life is too short and too valuable to harbour negative emotions such as worry, anger and jealousy.
  • You acknowledge you do not have to be perfect, but strive to be the best person you can be at all times.
  • You appreciate that self-knowledge is the key to self-acceptance.
  • You take full responsibility for the way you look and the way you live your life rather than blaming it on anyone else.
  • You count your blessings for what you have rather than bemoaning what you have not got.