Stay out of other people’s business.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Question
What would you like to leave your children?
Death & what remains
Question
Which book are you ashamed not to have read?
Taste & recommendation
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
When was the last time you changed your mind about something?
Change of mind
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
That you get out of life what you put in. When you grow up on a farm you literally reap what you sow.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 January 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 143 →If somebody doesn’t want to understand or see you that’s on them. You don’t have to carry that with you.
Try not to take yourself too seriously.
We are not here for long – try not to take everything too seriously.
More from Helen Skelton
View profile →Good memories. When I’m gone, I want them to feel that they were always my No 1 priority.
My new year resolution is actually to read all the classics and I’m ashamed that I haven’t read everything by the Brontë sisters.
Chaotic, warm, northern.
There’s a house near me that I adore and it came up for sale, and I got to the point of nearly buying it and then pulled out because I’m trying to be sensible.
After the 2012 Olympics I hosted the parade. I had on a little skirt and when the prime minister came on everyone cheered. I thought: “Oh my God, they love David Cameron,” but they were cheering because my skirt had blown up, and I’d flashed my knickers at him.
To Gorka Márquez, who was my Strictly partner, for not winning the glitterball in 2022.
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