Lemn Sissay: What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you?

The question

What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you?

Originally asked

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

A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

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

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

When I was a child, a member of staff at Wood End Assessment Centre [a former children’s home in Wigan] bellowed: “He copies them poems off of Bob Marley records.”

The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 122 →

Edward Enninful Ghanaian-born English editor and stylist

Any time I’ve been racially profiled. The words might be different, but the feeling is the same.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 December 2022 source ↗

Fearne Cotton

People have said, “I wish you would die.” That’s the stark truth of being in the public eye – people dehumanise you and say ghastly things.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 March 2026 source ↗

Eleanor Tomlinson English actress

“You were amazing in Game of Thrones.” I say it’s the worst thing – it’s also the best!

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 May 2024 source ↗

Kevin Rowland British singer

My dad said, “You’re going nowhere.” I was seven or eight.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 August 2025 source ↗

More from Lemn Sissay

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Question What disappointment has stayed with you longest? Failure & regret

I spent my life searching for family. I travelled around the world to look each one of them in the eye. Unfortunately, but understandably, for most of them, I am their biggest disappointment.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗

Question What do you fear most? Identity & self

That I can’t write.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗

Question When were you most embarrassed? Failure & regret

Also my most triumphant: 2017 at the Royal Court. Julie Hesmondhalgh reads my psychologist’s report over two hours. Every excruciating intimate word of it. Extreme verbatim theatre. One night only.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗