Shirley Hughes: What disappointment has stayed with you longest?

The question

What disappointment has stayed with you longest?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

This exact question recurs in The Guardian's institutional Q&A pool.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Shirley Hughes

English illustrator and author

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Not being able to live my life over again with the experience I now have.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 January 2012 source ↗

Others on this question

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Cee Lo Green American singer

The death of my mother, when I was 18.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 June 2011 source ↗

Jonnie Peacock British athlete

I try not to have disappointments, because a lot of the bad things that happen in life teach you things.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 January 2018 source ↗

Samira Ahmed British journalist and writer

When I was a 26-year-old news correspondent, the head of BBC news gathering, Chris Cramer, refused to let me take up a six-month attachment on the foreign affairs programme Correspondent. He said: “I think it’s too soon; you could do it later.” He’d never have said that to a man.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 January 2022 source ↗

Bryan Cranston American actor

That I couldn’t bridge the gap with my parents before they died. My mother died 10 years ago of Alzheimer’s, and my father died two years ago. He left when I was 11 and we got back in touch when I was 22.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 October 2016 source ↗