The question
What disappointment has stayed with you longest?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This exact question recurs in The Guardian's institutional Q&A pool.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Looking back is not productive.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 September 2025 source ↗
Being continually overlooked in awards ceremonies and honours lists.
Professionally, when I lost my first Wimbledon final. I am also disappointed I didn’t learn Spanish when I lived there.
Not getting a part in the school play.
Not winning Celebrity MasterChef. I am still gutted, despite many months of pretending to be fine with it.
The notion that anything is possible.
I was a guard on the Orient Express – however, only when it was stationed at a railway siding in Vauxhall.
Ignorance and rudeness. Decency and a please and thank you cost nothing.
John McCarthy, the journalist who was held captive for five years in Beirut. I’ve met him and he was so full of peace, humility and forgiveness – it was inspiring.
Funny, loyal, genuine.
“Do you know what your problem is?” It was a dear friend of mine. They were referring to the fact that I’m impatient.
Eleanor Tomlinson, Lolita Chakrabarti, Jo Brand, Francesca Martinez, Gemma Whelan, Kiell Smith-Bynoe
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