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 the island of Bequia—one summer, out of the blue, a benefactor (thank you, Charlene) flew our entire family there and put us up in a cliffside house that was a weird mixture of Gaudí and Fred Flintstone and where we went to sleep at eight and got up at five. In between we read, swam, hiked, and unknowingly enjoyed the last moment before the irrevocable shear of adolescence set in.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, March 2018 source ↗
My happiest moments are when I am wild camping with my family in Scotland and cooking on a fire by a river.
When Peta picked me to be on their first Times Square anti-fur billboard.
On the podium of the 100th Tour de France last year.
In the mountains, climbing into beautiful places—anything that has to do with nature. I feel best in nature or near nature. And I was most happy, of course, when I was with my husband and we were in beautiful landscapes.
The loss of a child.
Knowing when to show up and when to go home.
Quickly, without warning, maybe even in my sleep, and while we're putting in requests: before I lose my mind and my ability to gallop across the countryside on horseback.
Reading. And, in particular, reading on the deck of the cabin while my children play in the river below.
Sarah Millican, Olivia Williams, Julie Walters, Shirley MacLaine, Ed Harris, Gina McKee
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