If you could edit 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.

Recorded Björn Ulvaeus said elsewhere, not written here
My surname. You have no idea how many versions I’ve read and heard. It was especially irritating during my Abba years. You can imagine someone calling our hotel and saying: “I’d like to speak to one of the guys in Abba.” Who do you think the receptionist called, Andersson or Ulvaeus?

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 June 2020 source ↗

Others on this question

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David Harewood British actor and presenter
I would have had a bit more belief in myself: I would have reached for America sooner.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 November 2019 source ↗
I’d give my younger self the lessons I’ve learned over the years, sparing myself the need to figure everything out so publicly.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 February 2025 source ↗
Maybe I should have agreed to take the job of controller of BBC One when Bill Cotton offered it to me. I do feel a wimp; I would have been the first woman in the job.What do you consider your greatest achievement? I don’t really claim credit, I hope, for helping to launch Childline and the Silver Line and Silver Stories. It is an achievement that they all exist, but that is down to their amazing teams.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 February 2024 source ↗
Ian McEwan British novelist and screenwriter
To have grown up with my siblings. They were at least 10 years older than me.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 August 2018 source ↗

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