Simon Callow: Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?

Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?

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.

Recorded Simon Callow said elsewhere, not written here

A sculpture by Glynn Williams; it cost £7,000 in the early 80s.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 December 2017 source ↗

Others on this question

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Emeli Sandé British singer

A Feurich piano: one of the first things I bought when I could afford it.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 January 2017 source ↗

Bruce Dickinson English heavy metal singer

A Cessna Golden Eagle eight-seater aircraft. I flew it across the Atlantic both ways and did two US tours and two European tours in it. I finally sold it and got a job as an airline pilot in which I was paid to fly, rather than the other way round.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 July 2024 source ↗

Melanie Chisholm British pop singer

Holidays. In the Spice Girls, we found ourselves with quite a few quid, so it was lovely to hire a big house in the Caribbean and have friends and family over.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 October 2016 source ↗

Carol Vorderman

My aeroplane, a Diamond DA42. It’s a twin-engine aircraft and I bought her brand new to fly around the world solo. Very sadly my mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer about six weeks before I was due to take off, in May 2017, and she died early June. After that, I lost interest in doing it.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 March 2026 source ↗