A Pocketful of Happiness

Product Information

As I listened to you read your book (which is surely better than just reading it!), I realized that there are universals that caretakers experience—universals that I had not realized before. I find it very, very helpful, because it makes something that seems unreal feel real. It’s astonishing to me that I, who started out in one of the smallest countries in the southern hemisphere, should have this life, so if I write it all down, then it actually happened,” he says.

Thank you Richard E Grant for sharing your pain and yet give us the occasional loud laugh in writing. Having said all that, I found his story very moving in parts. This is a man who really, really, really loved his wife and meant it and lived it every day of their relationship. As Joan drew closer to death, I think REG tapped into some universal experiences around grief in an open and honest way that really touched me. I also realised, with a terrible lump in my throat, that Joan died almost the exact same date and time one of my best friend's did, albeit a year later and for a second it didn't matter who REG was. We were both united in the universal pain of grief which does not discriminate by race or wealth or identity. Martin Amis once wrote that the very act of writing is an act of love, and that’s what I feel writing about Joan. The best responses I’ve had to the book so far are people saying they feel like they got to know who Joan is – was,” he corrects himself. Thank you for writing honestly and lovingly about your wife and caring for her when she was dying from lung cancer. The all-new Philadelphia-set drama follows a group of ordinary people, thrown together in a strange and surreal puzzle-solving game to follow clues and unravel a mystery they never knew lay just under the veil of their city. Think The Wizard Of Oz meets Twin Peaks, with dance numbers, a bit of magic, and a Big Mouth Billy Bass thrown in.Come on, my inner cynic said. Grant has worked with everyone: Coppola, Scorsese, Altman. Would he really self-combust over a tweet from Streisand? Also, I knew full well he’d met her before: in With Nails, he describes – in some detail – talking with her at a party while he was making The Player in the 1990s. And yet, just minutes after Grant yelled at me at the Oscars, he was then “introduced” to Streisand, and uploaded photos of him looking delirious with happiness next to her. What a phoney, I grumped at the time.

Joan was born in Aberdeen, Scotland which shows in her determination to try to keep on going as Scottish are well known for their stubborn look on life and their ‘fight to the end’ on life as a whole. I’ve seen this in family members and friends as we do not like to wear our feelings on our sleeves so to speak and keep a lot hidden from family for fear of worrying them yet we can offload to complete strangers! Whilst you do feel sympathy and empathy for Grant and his experience, the author seems obsessed and entranced by the world of celebrity and class in a way which seems tone deaf to the scenario that he is describing. It is hard to come away from this without feeling like you have learnt as much about Grant's celebrity lifestyle and friends, and Grant and his wife's worth to these celebrities which he is een to stress, as you have about the love story that supposedly works as this book's spine.Talking about her keeps her memory alive, and is a vital part of his journey with grief, enabling him to continue living. Manage to get through to our local health centre immediately and given an appointment at 5 p.m. for a chest X-ray and blood test at Kingston Hospital. Richard also finds out about the acequias, the unique and ancient Moorish watering systems still used on a community basis by the local farmers and growers. They channel and distribute melt and spring water from the Sierra Nevada mountains, lending the Alpujarras its verdant character and underpinning the rich ecosystem in the valleys. What a beautiful relationship they had, and how honestly he conveys the pain following her diagnosis. Incredibly sad and so, so relatable. I particularly connected with the passages where he feels hurt by her outbursts, but understands where that pain and anger comes from, so he just has to bear it. Sara Cox's guests discuss the books that transport them to other countries. Between the Covers: Books that transport you