I’m the happiest right now. I can see that I’m in a kind of sweet spot: my parents are alive, my kids are little, my wife is hot and my body doesn’t hurt.
When were you happiest?
Question
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Identity & self
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
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.
Cycling around Martha’s Vineyard alone in the summer of 1976.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, January 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 577 →Anywhere with her, while she lived.
Ray Mears
British woodsman and TV presenter
Right now. I live in the present.
Jessica Hynes
British actress and writer
Last week, lying under a hat on Folkestone beach.
More from Keith McNally
View profile →Taking an overnight train in Europe.
My children dying before me.
Craving the kind of success I pretend to despise.
Using knowledge as a weapon.
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