Latest news with #APocketfulofHappiness
Irish Examiner
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Pictures & review: Richard E Grant in Bantry for the West Cork Literary Festival
As a child growing up in 1960s Swaziland, young Richard E Grant observed 'the three Bs: booze, boredom, and bonking' as the definition of adult colonial life. The actor added three new Bs - Bantry, Barry Keoghan, and Barbara Streisand – to his list as spoke to a packed Maritime Hotel on Saturday night as part of the West Cork Literary Festival. Grant was in town to speak about A Pocketful of Happiness, the memoir he wrote in 2022 after the loss of his wife Joan Washington to cancer a year earlier. In conversation with food writer, chef and Ballymaloe Cookery School co-founder Rory O'Connell, he spoke warmly on a range of topics. In the days before her passing, wife Joan had said she knew Richard and their casting director daughter Olivia would be devastated by grief. 'She challenged us to try and find a pocketful of happiness in each day,' said Grant. Grant, a keen diarist since childhood, said they have tried to live up to that expectation since. The sold-out signs were up for the event at the Maritime Hotel for weeks in advance, and Grant lived up to his character, with hints of the outrageous, adding tidbits of celebrity to pique the audience interest. Grant spoke with relish of co-starring with Dubliner Barry Keoghan in the dark thriller Saltburn, a smash hit on Netflix in 2023. The 68-year-old revealed a shocking scene featuring Keoghan's sexual antics on the grave of his former lover was improvised – and a sign of the young Irishman's craft genius. 'I believe Barry will be one of the great untrained actors of all time,' he gushed. Michelle Duggan, Cork, Charlie Fellows, Douglas, and Deirdre Murphy, Skibbereen in the Maritime Hotel, Bantry, to see Richard E Grant. Picture: Darragh Kane Grant has flashes of Kenneth Williams; even the shocking recollection of childhood, when the young Richard Grant Esterhuysen peeped over the car seat only to see the noise on the other side was his mother was 'getting a hole in one' from her father's golfer best friend. He candidly discussed his drunken father Henrik Esterhuysen holding a gun to his temple and pulling the trigger, after the youngster had poured his bottles of Scotch down the drain in an attempt to cure his alcoholism. Thankfully, he was so drunk he missed. He spoke about his obsession with Streisand, who he had seen as a youngster on screen in Swaziland and to whom he wrote a childhood letter inviting her over after seeing her in What's Up Doc? with Ryan O'Neill in 1972. Streisand told him almost half a century later that she never got the letter – and told him he was crazy. Grant has maintained his Streisand obsession and travelled to the Hamptons on a whim to meet her and husband James Brolin. Ostensibly, it is a A Pocketful of Happiness that Grant was in town to discuss, and his interviewer O'Connell is an avid fan. 'It hit me like a ton of bricks,' said O'Connell. 'I was on an Aer Lingus flight and one of the flight staff had to ask me if I was alright.' Grant says that he has been 'navigating grief' and in some ways his continuing loss – not eased by time – for his wife keeps her close. He spoke warmly about their first meeting, and their last – a 'conversation" that last from 1986 to Joan's death from cancer on September 2, 2021. The awkward boy from Swaziland found himself with dialect coach and partner Joan in 1980s London. They called their daughter Olivia because they thought she might look like him, tall, and long-faced – and imagined she might look like Olive Oil from Popeye, so she'd be called 'Oily'. She is called that by friends to this day. O'Connell was polite and deliberate. In true Ballymaloe style, had his questions meticulously prepared. Grant touched upon Withnail and I, upon the Oscars, upon meeting royalty. But much like the best recipes, sometimes it's the surprise ingredients which get the best results. When the event was very briefly thrown open to the floor, the very last question came from an audience member who asked about his relationship from his late mother Leonne , from whom he had been estranged and briefly reacquainted in more recent years. Grant was clearly a little thrown but spoke honestly. It was the first time Grant's facade of cool slipped, his voice cracking when he spoke of a frosty meeting where she finally slumped in front of him and simply said: 'Forgive me, please.' Grant said his mother had suffered living the life of a colonial wife, but added that she was also 'a narcissist, and a narcissist can't help themselves'. Her apology was short-lived. 'We have only two things in common – books and classical music,' were the words of her last message to him. He concluded that being the son of a narcissist has proved a driver to keep pushing himself and proving her wrong. The West Cork Literary Festival continues until July 19, with a packed schedule. Sunday's line-up includes John Creedon in conversation with Jackie Lynam and children's author and Milly McCarthy creator Leona Forde. Other highlights this week include film director Neil Jordan, and Graham Norton in conversation with Ryan Tubridy. See Out and about in Bantry Susan Moloney and and Anne Hanrahan, Bantry, in the Maritime Hotel, Bantry to see the event with Richard E Grant and chef Rory O'Connell at West Cork Literary Festival. Pictures: Darragh Kane Nelius Barry, Cahersiveen, and Mary Millea, Killiney, in the Maritime Hotel for West Cork Literary Festival. Eithne Barry and Angela McDonald, Blackrock, in the Maritime Hotel. Margaret and Mary McCarthy, Skibbereen, at the Richard E Grant event. Elsa and Sezzie Kemal in the Maritime Hotel. William Morris and Christine O'Keeffe, Ballydehob. Liz Buckley and Padraig Leahy, Cork. Meg O'Connell, Schull, Kate Whalley, Cork, and Aisling Arundel, Ahakista. Annie McCarthy, Rosscarbery, Elizabeth Goldrick, Dublin, Lia Curtin, Montenotte and Erin Connally, Cork. Siobhán Burke, Grace O'Mahony and Sara O'Donovan. Mary Manning, Marie Sherrie's, Deirdre O'Donovan and Bríd O'Connor, Bantry. Doreen O'Mahony and Kerry McMahon in the Maritime Hotel.
Irish Examiner
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Graham Norton, Richard E Grant, Alan Hollinghurst... 10 to see at West Cork Literary Festival
Alan Hollinghurst: Our Evenings The Maritime Hotel, Friday, July 11 at 8.30pm Booker-prizewinning author Alan Hollinghurst will be in conversation with Sue Leonard at the Maritime Hotel on Friday, discussing his new novel Our Evenings - a dark and luminous and deeply affecting novel which portrays modern England through the lens of one man's acutely observed experience. Richard E. Grant: A Pocketful of Happiness The Maritime Hotel, Saturday, July 12 at 8.30pm Richard E. Grant launched to fame in 1987 when he starred in the black comedy film Withnail and I and went on to star in a wide variety of films, receiving an Oscar nomination for his performance in Can You Ever Forgive Me?in 2019. An avid reader, in 2021, he hosted the BBC's literary travel series Write Around the World with Richard E. Grant. The actor and writer will be in conversation with Rory O'Connell from Ballymaloe Cookery School on Saturday, discussing his memoir A Pocketful of Happiness, which was published in May 2023. John Creedon: This Boy's Heart The Maritime Hotel, Sunday, July 13 at 1.30pm John Creedon. John Creedon paints a colourful picture of a changing Ireland in This Boy's Heart: Scenes from an Irish Childhood, where he shares his stories of friendship, fun, family, and folklore. Creedon will be in conversation with librarian and author Jackie Lynam to discuss the heart-warming and revealing journey into an Irish boyhood. Somerville and Ross: Claire Connolly Marino Church, Sunday, July 13 at 3pm In November 2024, new editions of the beloved Irish classics Experiences of an Irish R.M. and The Real Charlotte by Edith Somerville and Martin Ross were published, including prefaces by Connolly, who is Professor of Modern English at University College Cork. She will be in conversation with Dr Danielle O'Donovan, an architectural historian and lifelong Somerville and Ross fan from West Cork. Neil Jordan: Amnesiac The Maritime Hotel, Monday, July 14 at 8.30pm Amnesiac is the moving memoir of Academy Award-winning film director, screenwriter and author Neil Jordan. Reflecting on both the ghosts of his past and his personal triumphs, his memoir is an intimate account of one of Ireland's greatest storytellers. Jordan will be in conversation with Cristín Leach at the Maritime Hotel on Monday, July 14. Eimear McBride: The City Changes Its Face The Maritime Hotel, Wednesday, July 16 at 8.30pm Eimear McBride will be in conversation with Cristín Leach discussing her novel The City Changes Its Face. Set in London in 1995, the novel reintroduces Eily and Stephen, the couple from McBride's earlier novel The Lesser Bohemians. A story of passion, possessiveness, and family, the novel explores a passionate love affair tested to its limits. Seán Ronayne: Nature Boy National Learning Network, Thursday, July 17 at 2.30pm Cork-born ornithologist and naturalist Seán Ronayne will be in conversation with Mike Ryan in the unique setting of the National Learning Network's outdoor amphitheatre on July 17. Ronayne will be known to many through the award-winning RTÉ documentary Birdsong, about his project to sound record all the regularly occurring bird species in Ireland. His book Nature Boy: A Journey of Birdsong and Belonging won the Dubray Biography of the Year at the 2024 An Post Irish Book Awards. Nothing Compares to You: What Sinead O'Connor Means to Us Marino Church, Thursday, July 17 at 8.30pm Nothing Compares to You: What Sinead O'Connor Means to Us is a collection of essays edited by Sonya Huber and Martha Bayne. A celebration of the life and legacy of Sinéad O'Connor, the book explores themes such as gender identity, spirituality, artistic expression, and personal transformation. Three contributing authors, Martha Bayne, Mieke Eerkens and Allyson McCabe, will be in conversation with the Irish Examiner's Eoghan O'Sullivan. Wendy Erskine and Lisa Harding Marino Church, Friday, July 18 at 2.30pm Wendy Erskine. Wendy Erskine's debut novel The Benefactors and Lisa Harding's The Wildelings are two of the most highly anticipated novels of the year, one set in Belfast and the other in Dublin, and both raising important questions about class and social status. Erskine and Harding will be in conversation with Deirdre O'Shaughnessy at Marino Church on Friday, July 18. Graham Norton The Maritime Hotel, Friday, July 18 at 8.30pm One of the most treasured broadcasters and presenters in the UK and Ireland, Graham Norton is the author of five novels, Holding, A Keeper, Home Stretch, Forever Home, and Frankie, all of which became instant bestsellers both in the UK and Ireland. Holding, Home Stretch and Frankie have all won the Irish Book Award for Popular Fiction Book of the Year, and A Keeper and Forever Home were shortlisted for the same award. Norton will be in conversation with Ryan Tubridy at the Maritime Hotel on July 18. The West Cork Literary Festival takes place in Bantry from July 11 to July 18. Visit for more information.
Irish Independent
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Singer and songwriter BABA: ‘I love Louis Theroux, his awkward humour, the way he disarms his guests and how effortlessly he gets people to talk'
BOOK: A Pocketful of Happiness I love a memoir, and I adore a love story – so Richard E Grant's A Pocketful of Happiness really spoke to me. It's heartbreaking but so full of love. He shares diary entries from the time he lost his wife, Joan, to cancer and writes so honestly about their life together. Before she died she told him to try and find a pocketful of happiness in each day, and that thread runs beautifully through the book. My favourite line is: 'Grief is love with nowhere to go.' I think it's so important to normalise talking about your grief. STREAMING: Severance I've just finished Season 2 of Severance and I miss it already. I absolutely loved everything about it. The premise is brilliant – full of twists and turns – and the cast, and their acting, is outstanding. I've been a huge Adam Scott fan since Parks and Recreation. But what really stood out for me was the way it was shot: the symmetry of the Lumon offices, the attention to detail, and how they make something so stark and bleak look oddly beautiful. The whole thing was an unsettling joy to watch. I can't wait for Season 3. PODCAST: Louis Theroux I'm a huge fan of Louis Theroux, and I'm so excited his podcast is back, the aptly named The Louis Theroux Podcast. I've only listened to the Bella Ramsey episode so far, but honestly, he could talk to a wall and I'd still tune in. I just love everything about him; his awkward humour, the way he disarms his guests, and how effortlessly he gets people to talk. He recently released a very important documentary called The Settlers, which everyone should watch. FESTIVAL: Culture Night I love Culture Night in Dublin each September – there's such a buzz, and it really brings the city to life. My favourite part is wandering between free events, discovering new artists and chatting to creatives from all disciplines. I always finish the night with a pint and a toasted sambo in Grogan's – it's my little tradition.
