My short film, Scrubber, in 2011. At that time in my life it seemed easier to pay for it myself than to apply for funds.
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's weekly The Q&A repeatedly uses this standing prompt, with minor contractions and word-order variation.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
A cream suit from Chanel that cost almost as much as a small car.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 April 2022 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 207 →A holiday in New York for my son Arran’s 18th.
Angela Hartnett
English chef
When I first started at The Connaught, I bought a pair of antique diamond earrings at Fred Leighton in New York.
Courteney Cox
American actress and producer
A Banksy painting.
More from Rose Tremain
View profile →Working as the assistant to an agony aunt on a women’s magazine. When we didn’t get enough heartbreaking letters, we made them up.
When I first met Richard, in 1992, on a British Council writers’ tour of Adelaide. We were drinking Australian lager while parakeets squawked rudely in the neighbourhood gumtrees.
The film of Restoration. A beautiful cast. An award-winning designer. A massive budget. A dog’s dinner.
The only drink I really, really like is champagne.
Meryl Streep. For all her truthful and perfected offerings that have taken me to an “elsewhere”, in which my mind could feel both soothed and stimulated.
We live in a fearful age: Brexit, Covid, global warming, cancel culture, war in Ukraine. Add in pancreatic cancer and you find me in an advanced and complex state of anxiety.
More on money & investment
Also answered this
Sandi Toksvig, Monty Don, Bernadine Evaristo, Val McDermid, Ronald Harwood, Ruth Jones
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All money & investment questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject