In the 1950s I went to the Chelsea Arts Club’s New Year’s Eve ball at the Royal Albert Hall dressed as a Christmas pudding, with swimming trunks under my costume and holly in my hair.
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Question
When was the last time you changed your mind about something?
Change of mind
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
What scares you about getting older?
Time & hindsight
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Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
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How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim recurring question in The Guardian's Q&A series.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Fainting as a chorister in Winchester Cathedral in the middle of a service.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 March 2024 source ↗
Others on this question
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Meghan Trainor
American singer-songwriter
When I was 11, I went down a water slide and my bottoms didn’t go with me. Everyone saw my bare white butt.
Adam Lambert
American singer
I don’t embarrass easily: I’m kinda shameless.
Shakin' Stevens
Welsh rock and roll singer and songwriter
I was in the musical Elvis, and after a costume change I went below stage to be raised up on a platform. As I was raised up, I blanked and couldn’t remember the first line of the song King Creole. I mumbled the first few lines and hoped nobody would notice.
More from Jon Snow
View profile →Retirement – I thought it was a bad idea.
Tall, arrogant and loving.
Am I enjoying it too much to find out?
Self-centredness.
“You pinko!” by a Tory minister signing off at the end of an interview with me during the EU referendum campaign.
When interviewing Idi Amin of Uganda in 1975, he shouted: “We have ways of dealing with people like you.”
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- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 124 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 77 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 39 answers
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