Richard E. Grant at Brighton Festival

One of the first Brighton Festival events that I ever remember attending (long before I was involved with the festival) was back in 1997 when Richard E. Grant had just published With Nails. What I remember most is how nervous he was - he'd never done a literary discussion before and was convinced that no-one would turn up! Of course he was marvellous and the audience loved him. On Tuesday night he made a welcome return to the festival to talk about his latest book The Wah-Wah Diaries: The Making Of A Film at the Theatre Royal. Poor Kelly had to drop out at the last minute so Justin was delighted to take her place, and we met up with Polly - who had also gone with me to his earlier reading. The talk focused exclusively on the aforementioned Wah-Wah, Richard's directorial debut - and five year labour of love - a drama based on his childhood in Swaziland, interspersed with clips from the film (which opens in the UK on 2nd June). His quick witted banter continued in the Q&A with the audience, which covered many topics from Withnail & I right through to Doctor Who. Up in the bar afterwards he happily posed for photographs and signed stuff, which was particularly funny when he discovered a dedication already written in Polly's copy of By Design which he then proceeded to cross out in mock outrage. Quote of the night - "My eye sight might be going but my cock's still working fine!"