With spiky silver hair and scarlet lipstick, gold bomber jacket, baggy tracksuit bottoms, bling, and trademark giant black sunglasses, Flowers plays down the fame of her twilight years. ''I'm not a superstar DJ,'' she says, before donning her diamante-encrusted headphones and starting her set. ''I'm just a DJ.'' Mamy Rock, as she is known on the circuit, came to the wheels of steel later than most. She fell in love with dance music after accompanying her grandson to a London nightclub.

''The bouncers didn't want to let me in at first,'' she says. ''I was quite a lot older than the usual clientele, but once I got inside I hugely enjoyed it. ''I thought, 'I can do this.' My husband had died, I was retired, I had the time, so why not?'' Her grandson, who she says is smitten with the idea of his gran as an international DJ, put her in touch with a young French producer, who helped her develop her sound and image.

''I like to mix the old and the new, so I might put electro alongside an old favourite like the Rolling Stones,'' she says. Aurelien Simon, the 28-year-old producer behind the DJ, says he helps Flowers interject modern music through her set. ''But Ruth always has the last word,'' he insists.

Still, there is no sign of her favourite band, Queen, in tonight's playlist. ''Freddie Mercury … what a voice,'' she says, playing with the huge skull and crossbones ring on her finger. ''But I like to please the crowds, I give them what they want.'' There are few complaints on the dance floor where Flowers receives intense, and somewhat bizarre, adulation from the assembled sweaty Parisian youth. ''Mamy Rock! Mamy Rock!'' shouts Pauline Robert, a 23-year-old student, over the relentless thud of the music. ''We adore Mamy Rock. She loves to make us dance. We all want her as our grandmother.'' For Alex Ledys, 21, the appeal lies in her originality. ''It's so cool, I've never seen a DJ that old before,'' he says. ''Music brings together all generations.''

Flowers is more popular across the channel than in Britain, but Simon hopes to bring her mamy rock back home, ideally to the Ministry of Sound. But what the French call her traditional British eccentricity is part of the charm for these Parisians. Idir Igoudjil, a 19-year-old student at the prestigious Sciences Po Paris, compliments her mixing as a pair of barely pubescent girls dance alongside him. ''English women are fantastic,'' he says. ''They are much less uptight than French girls.''

After playing a residency at a jetset villa at the Cannes Film Festival, Flowers's popularity has snowballed. ''I can't believe the reaction I have got so far. People seem to adore me, they say they want to be like me, when they should just try and be like themselves, the dear things,'' she says, suddenly sounding like the grandmother she is. With an electro-rock EP, MamyRock, on the horizon and more offers to play famous clubs throughout the world, she has no desire to slow down just yet. ''I've got no intention of retiring,'' she says. ''Well, unless I drop dead. And I'd much rather go out with a bang than linger.''

Flowers worked as a singer and singing teacher in Portugal for 14 years, and returned to Britain after the death of her husband. She has little time for those who think she should grow old gracefully. ''I think you have to accept the challenges that come your way.'' Guardian News & Media