The title of Richard E Grant’s memoir A Pocketful of Happiness – which won the British Book awards’ best nonfiction audiobook prize – refers to an instruction from his late wife, Joan Washington, that he should find “a pocketful of happiness” every day to help him through his grief after her death.
“Honouring my wife’s edict became my New Year’s resolution and my mantra,” he says. “Having never followed any religion, brought up to regard it all as superstition, Joan’s simple challenge has proved to be profoundly powerful.”
Read with warmth and charm by Grant, the book looks back at his year caring for Washington following her diagnosis with lung cancer before Christmas in 2020, and the “head and heart-exploding overwhelm that followed”. It documents, in poignant closeup, the hospital appointments; the medications; the deliveries of food and flowers from friends (including mangos from the king); the moments of “lemony irritability” but also those of laughter and love.
Grant’s account of his wife’s illness is interleaved with memories of their early courtship – they met when he sought her services as a vocal coach – and his burgeoning success an actor. Pulsing through the book is Grant’s wry yet wide-eyed wonder at where his life and acting career have taken him, from the cult classic Withnail and I to Gosford Park to Star Wars and the Oscars (where he was nominated for his role in the black comedy Can You Ever Forgive Me?).
“Unlike Joan, who [was] anti-starstruck,” he says, “I still feel like a kid let loose in the sweetie shop of fame.”
• A Pocketful of Happiness is available via Simon & Schuster Audio, 8hr 13min
Further listening
Murder in Tuscany
TA Williams, Boldwood, 7hr 16min
A renowned writer is murdered while delivering a creative writing course in the Tuscan hills in this new crime series. Simon Mattacks reads.
Johnson at No 10
Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell, WF Howes, 20hr 13min
Mark Elstob narrates this detailed account of the chaos and duplicity of Boris Johnson’s premiership, based on the testimony of 200 witnesses.
