In his eighties (from 1976 to 1980), Henry almost daily wrote love letters to actress Brenda Venus missives overflowing with memories and hopes and crackling with erudition.

As friend Lawrence Durrell prefaces: “He does not exaggerate when he says she is literally keeping him alive; indeed her generosity and tact allowed him to end his days in a marvelous euphoria of loving attachment.”

Miller wrote of Venus: “To love at the end of one’s life is something special. Few women can inspire that sort of love. To wake up with the words of love on one’s lips–what bliss! Just to say “Brenda” puts me in ecstasy.”