HW
An actor. When I was really young, I wanted to be a fishmonger’s wife.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 December 2017 source ↗
The question
As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
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Others on this question
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Emma Bunton
British singer
An English teacher, and then a dance teacher.
Robert Bathurst
English theatre and television actor
Wimbledon champion. I won the title frequently when playing against a pebbledash wall at home in Ireland.
Samuel West
British actor, theatre director, and narrator
A DJ. I still do.
Edward Enninful
Ghanaian-born English editor and stylist
In African families, you can be one of three things: a doctor, a lawyer or a failure. I wanted to be an Egyptologist, but things worked out in the end.
More from Harriet Walter
View profile →In some way your life is doubled. You’re you and the other person.
My mother, because I didn’t appreciate until after she’d gone that she was a vulnerable human being. I just expected her to know everything and be everything.
I spent £600 on Rudolf Nureyev’s ballet shoes after he died. He was the biggest idol in my life and influenced me hugely.
I would never have gone on a diet. I would go back with the knowledge that not being perfect is fine.
When I got to 40 and realised I hadn’t read all the books I needed to read to understand the world.
Judith Clark, on whom I based my character in the prison trilogy. She has served over 35 years and turned herself around. She is an inspiration.
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