The question
What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
The summer of 1997. My husband, who is an American, gave up everything to come and live with me in Edinburgh when we were students, and we were so skint but we had so much fun.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 April 2023 source ↗
Paradise is the moment you are in, so right now I'm happiest talking to you.
Right now, here with you. Let’s not ruin it by talking.
In my 20s, touring small arts centres with my best mate, performing sketch comedy to a handful of people.
My wedding day. I had a sore face from laughing and smiling so much. Other than that, I am the happiest I've been in my life now.
At a fashion show after-party in New York in 2004, my friend dared me to push her into the pool. I did, and you’ve never heard laughter die so quickly.
When I was about 18, I worked on the chicken counter in a large supermarket, and every morning I had to pierce 64 birds on to industrial skewers to load up the rotisserie. That was very grim.
People who can’t hear other points of view. Absolute certainty always scares me a little.
To my younger self. I was incredibly self-loathing and self-doubting, and I’m still undoing that damage 30 years later.
My mother and my brother would still be alive. So much of my life has been coping with the grief of losing them.
My creative freedom. I was the creative director of a large fashion brand when I packed it all in to pursue my writing.
Julien Macdonald, Gino D'Acampo, Prue Leith, Nadiya Hussain, Paul Hollywood, Bella Freud
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