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.
On a caravan site on a farm in the Brecon Beacons when I was a kid. I have three sisters and every year we met family friends with kids the same age. We would go to the river and make rope swings and build dens. It was very Enid Blyton.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 September 2021 source ↗
Both of the days my children were born. It was like I’d stepped through a mirror and everything turned Technicolor.
In my second year at Oxford University. There was much lolling over the side of punts on the river with languid male companions plying me with cheap champagne.
The delivery room when my children and grandchildren were born.
Last Tuesday at 10 past three.
Barack Obama. On a daily basis he faced racism, and I admire him for trying to push through that to better his nation.
When I was 17, I worked in a warehouse in Rotherham doing an audit of truck parts. I counted nuts and bolts all day long.
Every time I let my wife drive.
A couple of days ago, saying goodbye to my children.
Another One Bites The Dust.
Every job I don’t get.
Toyah Willcox, Ted Danson, Sofia Coppola, David Schwimmer, Doris Day, Helena Bonham Carter
Search the directory for somebody in particular.