The question
How would you sum yourself up in three words?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's weekly The Q&A repeatedly uses this exact standing prompt.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Unimpeachable, nonpareil, self‑effacing.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 January 2026 source ↗
Confident, stressed, greedy.
Small, determined, lucky.
Quiet, noisy, androgynous.
Happy, loyal and late.
A picnic on the beach at Seaforth during the war. Somehow I managed to wriggle through a barbed-wire fence and run across a minefield. My teenage aunt Kat bravely followed suit and rescued me.
Last Sunday when all the family came round to celebrate my 88th birthday. (Or was it Saturday. Or the week before, perhaps?)
A lady came up to me in Tesco last year and said, “Excuse me, but didn’t you used to be Roger McGough?”
I had dreams of becoming the first scouse pope. Unfortunately, the girls got to me first.
I’m embarrassed when I get people’s names wrong.
I’m irritated by critics and academics who dismiss poetry that is popular, comprehensible or humorous.
PP Arnold, Jon Snow, Chris Bonington, Jack Dee, Mark Radcliffe, Chris McCausland
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