Corinne Bailey Rae: What thought won't let you sleep? — FLAPSS

The question

What thought won't let you sleep?

Originally asked

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

A long-running fixed question in The Guardian's weekly Q&A questionnaire.

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

CR

Corinne Bailey Rae

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

All the big ones – climate change, safety for our children, money.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 September 2023 source ↗

Others on this question

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Emma Bunton British singer

I am a good sleeper.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 June 2021 source ↗

Tom Allen British comedian

The fear of nightmares.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 November 2023 source ↗

Shirley Manson Scottish singer and songwriter; lead vocalist of Garbage

Climate change. That is the single most important calamity in the making that I obsess over.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 May 2022 source ↗

Ali Abbasi builder

Working on new ideas and driving

More from Corinne Bailey Rae

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Question What most recently moved you to tears? Identity & self

Listening to a song that my brother-in-law – the brother of Jason, my first husband – wrote, about how hard it was to live without his brother.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 September 2023 source ↗

Question If you could revise one chapter of your past, what would you change? Failure & regret

I wouldn’t change anything. When I was 29, my first husband died, so I learned a new way of thinking about life, which is: there are many things that you can’t control.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 September 2023 source ↗

Question Who alive today do you admire most, and what draws you to them? Values & belief

My mum, for the way that she brought up her three children and managed to make her money work. She worked as a cleaner for all these families we went to church with. She would cycle there with my little sister on the back of her bike – we didn’t have a car. She had an amazing mind for planning and organising so that we got to do ballet, we went to Brownies.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 September 2023 source ↗

Question How close have you come to dying? Death & what remains

When my first husband died, because it felt like my life was over, and it was challenging to keep in life at the time.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 September 2023 source ↗

Question What is the worst job you have ever had? Craft & work

I worked in a cafe, which I loved, but when it was quiet we had to scrape the fat out from between the tiles on the floor with a butter knife.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 September 2023 source ↗

Question What one change would most improve the quality of your daily life? Daily life

My mum looks after our kids all the time, but on the very few weeks she takes time off, doing it all is a big juggle. My mum is a combination of Mary Poppins and Angela Davis, so I’d clone her.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 September 2023 source ↗

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