Eleanor Tomlinson
English actress
Talk to people. Learn from them. And put your phone away.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
That it will go on quite happily without me.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 January 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
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Derek Sivers
Founder of CD Baby; author of Anything You Want
My mentor heard it and said, “Derek, you’re just not a singer. You really need to stop trying. Admit you’re a songwriter, and find a real singer.”
Kevin Rowland
British singer
Shakespeare said, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” – I think that’s true.
Kellie Maloney
Retired boxing manager, promoter and politician
Choose your friends wisely.
More from Roger McGough
View profile →A picnic on the beach at Seaforth during the war. Somehow I managed to wriggle through a barbed-wire fence and run across a minefield. My teenage aunt Kat bravely followed suit and rescued me.
I’m embarrassed when I get people’s names wrong.
I’m irritated by critics and academics who dismiss poetry that is popular, comprehensible or humorous.
Unimpeachable, nonpareil, self‑effacing.
Last Sunday when all the family came round to celebrate my 88th birthday. (Or was it Saturday. Or the week before, perhaps?)
Losing track (see above).
More on time & hindsight
- When were you happiest? 581 answers
- What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore? 82 answers
- What scares you about getting older? 63 answers
- What is the best advice you have ever received? 31 answers
- If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, what would it say and why? 24 answers
- What is something you were told by a parent, teacher, or mentor that you still repeat to yourself? 23 answers
Also answered this
Belinda Carlisle, Jo Nesbø, Sharon Corr, Lil Nas X, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Robert Carlyle
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