Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen: What trait do you most dislike in other people? — FLAPSS

The question

What trait do you most dislike in other people?

Originally asked

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

A verbatim standing question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A questionnaire, documented across respondents and years.

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

LL

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen

English interior designer and television personality

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Other people’s decorating, if I feel they’ve missed an opportunity and just decorated in that wet-cardboard, modern-grey thing. That’s a life not properly lived.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 October 2022 source ↗

Others on this question

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Lack of acceptance of my bad timekeeping

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 November 2024 source ↗

Charlie Munger Vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, 1978–2023

Generally speaking, envy, resentment, revenge, and self-pity are disastrous modes of thought. Self-pity gets pretty close to paranoia and paranoia is one of the very hardest things to reverse. You do not want to drift into self-pity.

Recorded USC Gould School of Law commencement, 2007, Speakola, 2007 source ↗

People having really loud conversations on their phones in public places.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 December 2023 source ↗

Rosalind Eleazar

Unbending opinions.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 February 2025 source ↗

More from Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen

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Question Who alive today do you admire most, and what draws you to them? Values & belief

The missus. She is the glamour mamma mia at the top of our feudal pyramid. We all live together, so she’s a full-time grandmother and rules the roost. How she steered us through lockdown was extraordinary.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 October 2022 source ↗

Question How close have you come to dying? Death & what remains

I was nearly hit by an enormous gold-fibreglass cherub in a shopping centre. It fell five storeys and smashed into a thousand pieces about 4ft away from me.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 October 2022 source ↗

Question Excluding property, what is the most expensive thing you have ever bought? Money & investment

My wife. I am a lavish present-giver. I love worshipping my wife with beautiful bits and pieces – it is one of my greatest pleasures.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 October 2022 source ↗

Question Which trait in yourself do you like least? Identity & self

I am crucified by my modesty: it’s terrible.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 October 2022 source ↗

Question What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy? Time & hindsight

This is going to horribly upset my wife, my children and my grandchildren, but it was when I did The Greatest Snowman last year for Channel 4. Being let loose on an Austrian mountainside to build snow sculptures was my happy point, and who knew I’d find an icy G-spot at nearly 58.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 October 2022 source ↗

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