Chris McCausland: What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy? — FLAPSS

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.

CM

Chris McCausland

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

My college years when I was 17 to 19, before the responsibilities of adulthood, just doing the things that I was good at and liked – computers, maths, further maths (I was a geek).

The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 November 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 577 →

Playing the Cowardly Lion in our fourth-grade production of The Wizard of Oz. Thank you, Mr. Riccobono.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2025 source ↗

Steffi Graf German tennis player

My happiness lives in the present. It's my life this morning, this evening, with Andre, my kids.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 June 2013 source ↗

Rob Lowe American actor

Any of the many times I have sat on my lawn with my wife, watching the boys play on a summer evening.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 August 2011 source ↗

Now. My life is better with every year of living it.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, April 2012 source ↗

More from Chris McCausland

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Question How would you sum yourself up in three words? Identity & self

Hard-working, resilient, irritating.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 November 2025 source ↗

Question What accomplishment matters most to you? Craft & work

Strictly. I went into it thinking I would last two weeks!

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 November 2025 source ↗

Question When were you most embarrassed? Failure & regret

When I was losing my sight, I couldn’t see where I was going, and I went into an undertaker’s thinking it was a barber’s. I asked the undertaker whether he had many waiting.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 November 2025 source ↗

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

A lot of awful gigs. You can’t become a successful comedian without dying on your arse more times than you can remember.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 November 2025 source ↗

Question What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you? Failure & regret

I was thrown out of a club by bouncers when I walked into somebody and told them that I was registered blind. They said: “Don’t give a fuck – you don’t belong in here.” As a straight white man, it gives you a taste of what other people have to contend with.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 November 2025 source ↗

Question Which book do you still mean to read, and why has it stayed on your list? Taste & recommendation

To Kill a Mockingbird – I was meant to read it for an exam and I didn’t and I cheated. I was allowed to use a laptop to type my answers because I couldn’t see my writing, so I hid an electronic copy of the book on the laptop.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 November 2025 source ↗

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