Venus by Hanif Kureishi

With "Venus", Hanif Kureishi - celebrated author of "My Beautiful Laundrette" - turns his piercing glance onto the pains of old age. Maurice (played by Peter O'Toole) and Ian (Leslie Phillips) are veteran stage actors whose slow, inevitable decline is disrupted by the arrival in their lives of Ian's niece Jessie (Jodie Whittaker). While Jodie's house-keeping skills become a bone of contention between her and Ian, Maurice, on the other hand, finds himself attracted to Jodie and seeks a more intimate relationship with her. The dialogue between them is, by turns, humorous, painful and touching as Youth struggles with Age. Also included in this volume is an Introduction by Kureishi in which he reveals the inspiration for the screenplay in the work of the Japanese master Tanizaki.