The question
As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
A drunk woman who threw epic dinner parties.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 August 2026 source ↗
As a child, Munro was constantly telling herself stories. One of the first was “The Little Mermaid,” by Hans Christian Anderson, whose ending she couldn’t bear.
I always wanted to be a singer, but I also wanted to be a doctor. I almost got there: I did four years and got my neuroscience BSc.
A hairdresser through the week and a star on the weekends.
I wanted my own ice-cream van and to be a lollipop lady.
My Auntie Jane. She took me in, aged 10, and, after my mother died, healed my broken heart by filling our dining room with food and people. Still cooking at the grand old age of 89. My icon.
So far, getting older has made almost everything better.
When I ruin someone else’s story because I think mine is better, so butt in before they’ve finished theirs.
My Siamese cat, which I had freeze-dried after she died. I really think their future partners will like it.
Clothes moths (and the imminent threat of world war three).
Not winning Celebrity MasterChef. I am still gutted, despite many months of pretending to be fine with it.
Jack Davenport, Kate Humble, Jon Sopel, Lee Child, Esther Rantzen, Griff Rhys Jones
Search the directory for somebody in particular.