MY HAVEN – RICHARD E GRANT

The actor, 59, in the study at his home in Richmond, south-west London

1 A LETTER TO BABS

I’ve lived in this house for 20 years with my wife Joan and this study is my haven. It’s full of memorabilia, like these tickets to see Barbra Streisand in London in 2007. I’m a lifelong fan, and I met her at a party in LA in 1992. I was so overwhelmed she said, ‘Are you stoned?’ I told her it was because I’d written to her when I was 14 growing up in Swaziland, inviting her to come out there as I’d read she was having trouble with her boyfriend Ryan O’Neal. After the concert I went backstage and she invited me back the next night.

2 OUT OF AFRICA

This is my father Henrik’s ceremonial sword and pith helmet. He was head of education for the British Government in Swaziland, and all the high-ranking colonials wore these for la-di-da events. He was awarded the OBE for services to education there yet as he lay on his deathbed in 1981 he felt his years as a white man in Africa had been wasted. But 1,000 people turned up to his funeral, mostly black Swazis, so they hadn’t. The helmet and sword – and his old cine camera here – are all I have of his.

3 SOMETHING FISHY

I collect film props and costumes wherever I can, and this giant sturgeon is from a spoof cookery series I did with Arabella Weir in 2003 called Posh Nosh. We played chefs the Hon. Simon and Minty Marchmont, owners of a very posh restaurant called the Quill & Tassel, who were on a mission to bring extraordinary food to ordinary people. It was a complete send-up of every other cookery show out there, and David Tennant played my tennis coach who I had a crush on. We absolutely loved it.

4 EAU DE LONDON

I have a very sharp sense of smell, possibly because I’ve never drunk or smoked, and in 2014 I launched my first unisex perfume, Jack. Last month I launched my third fragrance called Piccadilly ’69 after the year I first came to London as a pre-teen. Piccadilly Circus was a swarm of hippies back then and the smell of patchouli oil was incredible. There’s also bergamot in the scent, and leather, because the banquettes at Fortnum & Mason were all leather in 1969. I’ve tried to put sex in a bottle.

5 MY PAL MERYL

This photo of Elizabeth McGovern, Meryl Streep and I was taken at a party. I played Elizabeth’s husband in The Scarlet Pimpernel TV series in 1999 and then Simon Bricker, the art historian who sleazes after Elizabeth’s Cora in Downton Abbey. I also played Michael Heseltine opposite Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady, and we became friends. When she was working at Shepperton Studios once she came here for dinner. I was so nervous but I played it safe – Caesar salad, crab linguine and apple crumble.

6 CAR TROUBLE

This vintage tin model of a 1960s Mercedes was given to me by Gabriel Byrne as a thank you present for Wah-Wah, my film about my childhood in Swaziland in which he played my father. It’s a miniature version of the Mercedes in which I saw my mother commit adultery with one of my father’s friends – the opening scene of the film – which drove my father into alcoholism and depression. Gabriel said, ‘Our friendship will keep driving as long as this car has four wheels.’