Riz Ahmed
British actor and rapper
Some of my teachers. I was a bit of a handful as a kid. They were just trying to do their job and I made it very difficult.
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
Which book are you ashamed not to have read?
Taste & recommendation
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
All the kids I didn’t reply to who’ve written lovely letters about my books.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 October 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 209 →
Douglas Stuart
Scottish fashion designer and novelist
To my younger self. I was incredibly self-loathing and self-doubting, and I’m still undoing that damage 30 years later.
Vicky McClure
English actress
To my teachers, for not paying attention.
Cynthia Nixon
American actress and politician
Everybody, now and before, who was fleeing for their lives and wasn’t allowed into our country.
More from Charlie Higson
View profile →I’ve shat myself in public three times. It’s never quite as bad as you fear.
Three mature palm trees. We restored a property in Italy that had been derelict and I needed to make it look established as quickly as I could.
I used to give a fantastic talk about Frankenstein and Dracula, but I’ve never been able to finish either book.
I can be horribly smug and conceited, and yet always in the back of my mind is the thought that things could go terribly wrong at any moment.
Middle-class wanker.
Aggression. Anger. Rudeness. Intolerance. Lack of understanding. Pretty much your average day on X.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 371 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 207 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 124 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 124 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 78 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 40 answers
Also answered this
Marc Almond, Liev Schreiber, Miriam Margolyes, Karamo Brown, Alice Eve, Romesh Ranganathan
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