Lemn Sissay: What disappointment has stayed with you longest?

The question

What disappointment has stayed with you longest?

Originally asked

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

This exact question recurs in The Guardian's institutional Q&A pool.

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

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

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.

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

Others on this question

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Lionel Shriver American author

Getting exactly what I wanted.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 May 2016 source ↗

Mary Portas English retail consultant

Not being able to take up my place at Rada.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 March 2012 source ↗

Jesse Jackson American minister, activist and politician

Many have fought for and even lost their lives to end segregation, to win the right to vote. It disappoints me to now have to cajole people to register and to vote.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 April 2012 source ↗

Russell Tovey English actor

Never learning to play the piano.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 October 2010 source ↗

More from Lemn Sissay

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Question How would you want people to remember you? Death & what remains

In a photo album of just one family.

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

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

Believing in, even admiring, people who refuse to believe in me, and not believing people who do.

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 ↗