"Richard E. Grant's life changed almost overnight when he was cast as the lead in Withnail & I in 1986. He kept a diary of the experience, the bestselling With Nails, and now it is published for the first time in audio, read by the author.
Funny and revealing, told with trademark candour, join Richard E. Grant on the shoot of a lifetime.
'In these dashing diaries of his recent years in the movies, Grant shares with candour his wonder at this aberrant universe and its inhabitants' ― Sunday Times
'An exceptionally vivid and penetrating insight into Hollywood film-making... What most of us want is gossip about starts, and this is something the book delivers in spades... Qualifies for that exclusive niche reserved for film star memoirs that are worth much more than a casual flick on the bookshop shelf' ― Observer
"
"'A gorgeously candid account of acting and show business. And an intimate and heartfelt story of love, loss and a life spent together. It is an honour to be invited in on these diaries. I cannot remember being so moved by a book' Dolly Alderton
'Fascinating, funny and heart wrenching' Dame Julie Walters
'An emotional rollercoaster - profoundly moving and wonderfully entertaining. A brilliant memoir about living, loving and losing' Bernardine Evaristo
'One of the bravest, strongest, funniest memoirs I've ever read' Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry
An intimate and uplifting memoir by Richard E. Grant.
Born in Swaziland in 1957, Richard E. Grant moved to the UK to pursue his acting career, and has been a fixture on our screens since his breakout role in Withnail and I in 1987. When his beloved wife Joan died in 2021 after almost forty years together, she set him a challenge: to find a pocketful of happiness in every day.
The result is this book.
Set between the present day and flashbacks to delightfully indiscreet diary entries recalling landmarks from his remarkable life and glittering career, this is an immensely personal and profound memoir that celebrates and cherishes life's unexpected joys.
Funny, moving and perceptive, A Pocketful of Happiness is an insight into the life of a much loved British actor.
"
"Ten years after the publication of With Nails, Richard E Grant’s brilliant memoir of his years in Hollywood, Macmillan Digital Audio are proud to be publishing Wah-Wah, the very personal diaries of his debut behind the camera, as writer and director of his autobiographical movie of the same name. It is both a fascinating insight into the intrigues and agonies he encounters along the way, and also a deeply moving portrait of his childhood and his love affair with Swaziland, where he was born and brought up during the last throes of the British Empire.
Through the mayhem – never-ending financial pressures; hostilities and finally breakdown of communication with his Producer; the nerve-racking quest to persuade the King of Swaziland to grant permission to film in his country; the assembly of a stellar cast including Gabriel Byrne, Miranda Richardson, Emily Watson, and Julie Walters – Richard E Grant has written and reads, with characteristic humour and charm, an extraordinarily honest and revealing account of a labour of love and the realisation of a dream."
