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.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 June 2023 source ↗
Pittsford, New York, writing my first book when our kids were small, riding my bike to work because we only had one car…that feeling of being needed and loved and vitally involved in something artistic that I didn’t fully understand, everything still lying ahead of us.
In the mountains, climbing into beautiful places—anything that has to do with nature. I feel best in nature or near nature. And I was most happy, of course, when I was with my husband and we were in beautiful landscapes.
There are different kinds of happiness, but the simplest was when I was 13 because what one had to do was so obvious.
My childhood. I was an only child, happy and secure, and there was always plenty of time to play cricket.
“I could never love you like that.”
The best thing in the world.
A great composer. I wrote to Benjamin Britten to tell him this and that he was my third favourite composer. For some reason he didn’t feel moved to reply.
With an international holiday.
My financial incompetence.
Don’t overcook pasta.
Ethan Hawke, Judith Kerr, Jay McInerney, Anne Enright, Maggie O'Farrell, Jeanette Winterson
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