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.
Trusting someone and being let down.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 September 2025 source ↗
Not playing Freddie Mercury.
This country’s enchantment with privately educated, self-serving liars.
Not getting into MI5.
Getting exactly what I wanted.
Less time on my phone.
Clearing up someone’s sick – it was on police duty.
The children. As a mother you are constantly worrying whether you’ve done the right thing.
It was reading out loud, but no longer. (I am dyslexic.) I was encouraged by my husband to do a speech for the Royal National Institute of Blind People, which helped me gain my confidence, and the fear disappeared.
In a different sense, I’ve helped to try to resuscitate a dead man.
An English teacher said, “You’ll never make anything of yourself.”
Stephen Graham, Meera Syal, Judith Kerr, Andi Oliver, Russell Howard, Jay McInerney
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