A Pocketful of Happiness: A Memoir - Richard E Grant

Published by Simon and Schuster Ltd: London, 2022.

The same day I put Roger Moore's autobiography, My Word is My Bond, into the Book-Swap Library outside my parents' house, this book was in it. Thinking it was another similar style biography - and having enjoyed the earlier one for what it was, with some reservations - I decided to give this one a go as well.

I was not prepared.

Although Pocketful of Happiness is indeed another memoir, written by a respected England-based actor, who had a role in Spice World (the main point of overlap between the two actors I noticed), it is mostly focussed on the year in Grant's life when his beloved wife, dialect coach Joan Washington, was dying of lung cancer.

And it is heart-breaking.

Grant adores his wife, and they had 35 years of marriage together - a rarity in Hollywood circles. The love he has for her, and for their daughter Olivia (called "Oilly" by both parents, in a reference to Olive Oyl from Popeye), permeates this book. Grant is very open about the ups and downs of their lives during this final year of Joan's life (the book is divided into sections based on each month of that year), including his own frustrations and moments where the different family members were at odds with one another - perfectly natural in the circumstances. 

The book is written as a journal of his thoughts, with headings giving the date of each entry. The journal feel is added to by the interesting choice to leave many of his sentences as incomplete thoughts, the way you might see them jotted down in a diary. This takes a while to adjust to (particularly for an English teacher like myself!) but soon becomes part of the appeal; it's not poorly written, it's just raw, unedited.

Despite the majority of the book being focussed on the one year, Grant still manages to fit in a lot of his 'general' memoirs, inserting "flashback" parts regularly, and often when the "current" time-line reminds him of something from earlier in his life. So, we get a little bit (not much) of his childhood in Swaziland, a look at his early career as a struggling actor, his breakout role in Withnail and I, a lot about his Oscar nominated performance in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, a few insights into his appearances in the Star Wars and Marvel universes (this stage of his career is referred to as his 'mustard' stage, being added late in the 'cooking' to give a dash of flavour), and more time than you might expect to his role in Persuasion, with the latter being one of the few roles he took during Joan's illness.

Perhaps Grant and Moore travelled in different circles, or perhaps there was a generational culture shift, or perhaps simply being in a long-term committed loving relationship made a difference, but Grant's experiences of being an actor are also far less - what's a good term? - debaucherous than those Moore described, both in terms of Grant's own personal experiences, and in the stories he relates of those in his world. Grant is also, perhaps, a little more circumspect with his memoirs; he occasionally refuses to name someone who hasn't come across very well, and at one point expressly mentions that a particular conversation will remain private so that he and the others involved wouldn't get sued!

Overall, this is a relatively sweet, interesting, and fairly heart-breaking look at both the life of an actor and the love-story between two committed individuals who are now staring death in the face. It is moving. It is interesting. It is occasionally funny. I learned a lot more about Richard E Grant than I ever thought I would, including a suprisingly intense obsession with Barbra Streisand!

It is another story where I wish wish wish the people involved had Jesus in their lives, as parts of the journey are devestatingly void of hope, and yet even in this, Joan and Richard manage to stay positive for the most part. The title A Pocketful of Happiness even comes from something Joan made Richard and Oilly promise to her: that they would each try to find a pocketful of happiness each day, in order to help them carry on.

Beautiful.

And, a good book if you want to have a bit of an ugly cry in patches.

Completed 2 June 2026.

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