Russell Howard: If you could revise one chapter of your past, what would you change?

The question

If you could revise one chapter of your past, what would you change?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

Repeated verbatim in The Guardian's long-running Saturday Q&A; two publisher-hosted examples establish recurrence.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Russell Howard

British comedian and presenter

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

I wouldn’t lose my virginity at an army camp and then roll over on to an ants’ nest.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 February 2020 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 203 →

Charlotte Church Welsh singer-songwriter and actress

Trusting some men.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 July 2022 source ↗

Nicholson Baker Contemporary American novelist and writer

I made too much money in my 30s, and it distorted my writing and made me less hungry. Then, in my 40s, I spent all the money on daily life – and now I don’t have it.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 August 2020 source ↗

Leona Lewis

I would tell myself to stop being such a worrier.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 December 2023 source ↗

Toby Stephens

There was a very large part of my 20s where I was an alcoholic, and an addict. When I lost my dad to cirrhosis, I knew that the only difference between us was that, tragically, he couldn’t stop whereas I could.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 June 2026 source ↗