Anywhere with her, while she lived.
When were you happiest?
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What song would you like played at your funeral?
Death & what remains
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.
When I was 15 and starting my first job as a messenger boy at the post office, delivering telegrams.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 August 2017 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 577 →
Sue Perkins
British actress, singer, writer and comedian
In my 20s, touring small arts centres with my best mate, performing sketch comedy to a handful of people.
Our last holiday together in Pangkor Laut.
Ann Patchett
American author
Before email was invented.
More from Shaun Ryder
View profile →In 1975, I watched the film Stardust, and Adam Faith said, “I supply the birds, the pills and the pot.” And I thought, “I want that.”
The 12 years I spent in receivership. That was me being a dick. I lost the court case when I wanted to sack my management and had to pay them £120,000. I said, “I am not paying you, because I should have won.”
I had a gun shoved in my eyeball in New York by a crack dealer in the 1980s. I have also watched somebody next to me get shot in the head in a gun battle – that was in Jamaica in the early 1990s.
One Nation Under a Groove, by Funkadelic.
More on time & hindsight
- What is the most important lesson life has taught you? 137 answers
- What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore? 77 answers
- What scares you about getting older? 61 answers
- What is the best advice you have ever received? 28 answers
- If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, what would it say and why? 23 answers
- What is something you were told by a parent, teacher, or mentor that you still repeat to yourself? 22 answers
Also answered this
Kelis Rogers, Gloria Estefan, Marianne Faithfull, Imelda Staunton, Toyah Willcox, Doris Day
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All time & hindsight questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject