Going on stage and saying, “Good evening Lyon!” I was in Marseille.
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
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What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
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What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
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What would you like to be remembered for?
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.
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.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 June 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
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John Simm
English musician and actor
Going to pieces while meeting John Squire, the lead guitarist of the Stone Roses, backstage after a gig. I completely lost the ability to speak. I told him I had the same guitars as he’d just used on stage, and when he asked me which ones, the words completely went out of my head and there was a huge pause, and then his wife tapped his shoulder and he wandered off.
Years ago in a safari park in South Africa, and getting all dressed up for dinner. Walking across the lawn, I didn’t realise there was a swimming pool that hadn’t been lit and walked straight into the shallow end fully clothed. It still haunts me. I remember trying to get out as if no one would notice.
Wearing 90s ripped-at-the-crotch jeans at Rada during an unarmed combat session and showing everyone more than they bargained for.
More from Frank Bowling
View profile →Trying to exercise authority over one.
Being able to paint the way I do.
My work. What shape will it take?
A fellow artist called me a flaneur!
A detective. Or a writer. Or a poet.
As a nice old man.
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- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 69 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
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