MS
When I was a child and I got a new toy.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 January 2009 source ↗
The question
What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.
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Others on this question
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Ian McEwan
British novelist and screenwriter
In my mid- to late-20s, in London, beginning to publish, living hand to mouth, having fun. Also now, when love and life and work have finally cohered.
Richard Wilson
Scottish actor and theatre director
In my early 20s. I did my national service late, in Singapore. It was liberating to be in a new culture.
Adwoa Aboah
British fashion model
On a walking safari in the middle of the Kenyan bush. I had no phone, no mirror, nothing, and I was really happy because I had no distractions.
Tom Ellis
Welsh actor
On a caravan site on a farm in the Brecon Beacons when I was a kid. I have three sisters and every year we met family friends with kids the same age. We would go to the river and make rope swings and build dens. It was very Enid Blyton.
More from Mike Skinner
View profile →I cry all the time.
My microphone cost me six grand.
My brother was singing Yellow Submarine on stage with his class. I was singing along with them, showing off cos I knew all the words. The song ended suddenly and I was the only one in the whole hall who sang, 'We ...'
We used to have one of those gat guns that shot pellets. My friend pretty much had the thing at point-blank range to my temple. It popped out and completed its trajectory about a millimetre from my head.
I'd like to write my funeral song.
That I might have to do a normal job.
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