The Daily Mail – 30th January, 2016

Richard E Grant
‘My mother’s infidelity made me start, aged 10’

Actor, director and writer of ‘The Wah-Wah Diaries: The Making Of A Film’ and ‘With Nails: The Film Diaries Of Richard E Grant’

When did you start writing a diary?
I started after witnessing my mother’s infidelity when I was ten (Grant saw his mother make love to his father’s best friend in her car). I had no one to talk to – I’d tried God but not received an answer – so I kept a diary to try to make sense of the world.

Why do you keep it?
It has been invaluable in trying to work out how the world works; what might seem incomprehensible has a way of unravelling and resolving itself when you try to put it on paper. It’s also a way of revisiting or examining the past ‘as it happened’ as it’s written on the day things occurred so has a truth that isn’t distorted or falsified by memory.

When do you write it?
I write it almost every day on my iPhone or iPad. Before that I used a laptop, and before that – in the Jurassic Age – a typewriter.

Has it caused any embarrassing moments?
I ruthlessly detailed the staggering incompetence wrought by the producer of my autobiographical film Wah-Wah. She threatened to sue me for my honesty.

What has it taught you?
The astonishing breadth of the talented people I’ve met and worked with is so disproportionate to my teenage expectations, so keeping a diary has made the ‘unreal’ feel real. Looking back over the journals, I realise that I have either met or worked with my entire secret list of heroes.

What are your top tips?
Be yourself, be honest and be unequivocal. Don’t try to censor yourself as this makes the account instantly lose its honesty and immediacy.

Who are your favourite diarists?
Joe Orton – his candour and humour are addictive – and Kenneth Williams.