When interviewing Idi Amin of Uganda in 1975, he shouted: “We have ways of dealing with people like you.”
How close have you come to death?
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
On a school trip to Wales when I was 12. My canoe capsized and got stuck upside down next to a rock. I was underwater for about 30 seconds but it felt a lot longer.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 April 2018 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 210 →
Ronnie Wood
English rock musician
I can dodge the bullets – I’m lucky.
Ray Mears
British woodsman and TV presenter
In a helicopter crash in Wyoming in 2005. My cameraman broke his back and both legs; the pilot broke his back. The helicopter didn’t catch fire, so I’m still here today.
Anita Rani
British broadcaster and journalist
Climbing Scafell Pike in the Lake District when I was about 15. The winds were about 85mph, my legs lifted and I nearly flew off. Thankfully somebody grabbed me.
More from Meera Syal
View profile →Often, with laughter.
Having to clean out my daughter’s digs at university. The memory of the state of that toilet still lives with me.
Holidays. For years, I would book a big house in Britain for a week for the entire family. There would be 14 of us. I don’t regret a penny.
Not being able to keep up piano lessons. I did a year and I was really good and loved it and then my parents couldn’t afford for me to continue.
My parents. They have been the best example of a loving and respectful marriage over 60 years.
More on death & what remains
- What would you like to be remembered for? 217 answers
- What song would you like played at your funeral? 179 answers
- If you had only one day left to live, how would you spend it — and what would you deliberately avoid doing? 54 answers
- What happens when we die? 53 answers
- What would you like to leave your children? 46 answers
- How would you like to die? 44 answers
Also answered this
Aidan Gillen, Orlando Bloom, Emilia Fox, Cynthia Nixon, Bertie Carvel, Geoffrey Rush
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