A Pocketful of Happiness

Product Information

View image in fullscreen Richard E Grant with his late wife, Joan Washington, at a party in Richmond, London, in 2010. Told with candour in Richard’s utterly unique style, A Pocketful of Happiness is a powerful, funny and moving celebration of life’s unexpected joys. When Richard E Grant’s wife, Joan Washington, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer just before Christmas 2020, she didn’t really want anyone to know. When he’s seated next to Camilla, the then Duchess of Cornwall, at dinner, they’re “instant friends”; when he has psychotherapy, his problems are fixed, seemingly within minutes.

And then there are a few more quotes from friends who tell him how gifted and wonderful he is, as he ultimately does not win the Academy Award.Grant were writing a review of this moving memoir, there would be many, many fond and admiring adjectives used to describe almost everyone who appears in the pages: witty, forthright, feisty, silky-soft, button-bright, hilarious, loving, generous, heartbreaking, warmhearted, inclusive, brilliant, sparky, amazing, charming, gilded, entertaining. It’s enough for him simply to tell us, over and over, how happy he and Washington were together, that they mated, like swans, for life.

Since then, he has gone on to star in a wide variety of films, including his Oscar nominated performance in Can You Ever Forgive Me? Their relationship and marriage, navigating the highs and lows of Hollywood, parenthood and loss, lasted almost forty years. The most revealing moment in his book comes late on, when Grant spends a night alone in Salisbury, where he has been filming Persuasion with Dakota Johnson. Darkness falls on us all eventually, even on those who know Elton John well enough to receive his condolences by phone.They felt they needed the support of their huge circle of friends: anything else would be too lonely. Convinced of his own persuasiveness, he once tried, he tells us, to get a part exchange, not on a car, but on a loo seat. I was not happy to read the details of Joan’s diagnosis and dying, but those sections of the book are genuine and compelling. If the initial age verification is unsuccessful, we will contact you asking you to provide further information to prove that you are aged 18 or over. Photograph: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP View image in fullscreen Richard E Grant: ‘his feelings for everyone and everything are so immediate, and always blasted out undiluted’.