A “gorgeously candid” (Dolly Alderton, internationally bestselling author of Everything I Know About Love) “profoundly moving, and wonderfully entertaining” (Bernadine Evaristo, winner of the Man Book Prize and author of Girl, Woman, Other) memoir about finding happiness in even the darkest of days from Oscar Award–nominated actor Richard E. Grant.

Richard E. Grant emigrated from Swaziland to London in 1982, with dreams of making it as an actor. Unexpectedly, he met and fell in love with a renowned dialect coach Joan Washington. Their relationship and marriage, navigating the highs and lows of Hollywood, parenthood, and loss, lasted almost forty years. When Joan died in 2021, her final challenge to him was to find a “pocketful of happiness in every day.”

This honest and frequently hilarious memoir is written in honor of that challenge—Richard has faithfully kept a diary since childhood, and in these entries he shares raw detail of everything he has experiences: both the pain of losing his beloved wife, and the excitement of their life together, from the role that transformed his life overnight in Withnail and I to his thrilling Oscar Award nomination thirty years later for Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Told with candor in Richard’s utterly unique style, A Pocketful of Happiness is a powerful, funny, and moving celebration of life’s unexpected joys.

Richard E. Grant was launched to fame in 1987 cult classic Withnail and I. 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? in 2018. An avid reader, in 2021 he hosted the BBC’s literary travel series Write Around the World with Richard E. Grant. He married Joan Washington in 1986, and has a daughter, Olivia. You can find him on Twitter @RichardEGrant and Instagram at @richard.e.grant.