The Old Joke - Softcover

'I absolutely love The Old Joke. It is written with immaculate precision and patient originality, yet never takes itself so seriously that we can't laugh out loud and occasionally weep for these beautifully delineated characters.' Maureen Lipman 'Reina James enters the dark places and throws a strong light upon them. She is never sentimental but always humane, a brilliant writer.' Linda Grant 'Reina James is such an acute and sympathetic observer of people, and so alert to the poignancy in their lives as well as to what's comical or foolish about them, it's hard not to feel you've come to know her characters as closely as your own friends, and impossible not to miss them when the book ends.' Andrew Cowan

Mim Lyons is a retired film actress, occasionally still recognized from her last great starring role in the late 1960s, but now more than content to restrict her performances to occasional play-readings with a group of old friends from the theatrical world. But when her agent calls out of the blue with a job offer, her husband begins to have his own dreams and schemes about the possibility of a comeback in a role that unsettles Mim's perception of how her husband sees her - and of who she really is. As Mim struggles to preserve the quiet surface of the existence she has created away from the limelight, it becomes impossible to ignore the turmoil in the lives of those closest to her. While her friends' marriage hits the rocks, her son struggles to clean up his act, her estranged daughter floats back into her life, and her husband is suddenly rendered vulnerable, Mim gradually comes to reassess the roles she has been playing - as friend, as daughter, as mother and as wife - and to decide who exactly she wants to be.