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 moment was being in the room when my daughter was born, and seeing her draw her first breath and turn from what looked like gray clay into the deepest, most vibrant, most psychedelic crimson. It was an unforgettable, unimaginable explosion of energy and potential—of promise and pure love.
As a boy in a tree.
When I won gold at the London Olympic Games.
The mid- to late 80s, summers spent at Park End Farm in Atherton – ankle deep in horse manure and soaking wet from falls from badly constructed rope swings across streams.
Reading. And, in particular, reading on the deck of the cabin while my children play in the river below.
Knowing when to show up and when to go home.
The loss of a child.
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.
Sarah Millican, Olivia Williams, Julie Walters, Shirley MacLaine, Ed Harris, Gina McKee
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