Alex Lawther: Excluding property, what is the most expensive thing you have ever bought?

The question

Excluding property, what is the most expensive thing you have ever bought?

Originally asked

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

The Guardian's weekly The Q&A repeatedly uses this standing prompt, with minor contractions and word-order variation.

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

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

My partner was doing a play in Hong Kong last year and I went to visit him, and I bought him a beautiful teacup. But I didn’t look at the price tag before I took it to the till and it was £100, the most expensive teacup imaginable.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 September 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 198 →

Patricia Hodge English actress

My piano, a boudoir grand. I’ve played since I was six.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 September 2018 source ↗

Cat Deeley English television presenter

Art. I recently bought a Sean Scully painting, I have a Damien Hirst, a Tracey Emin, a Polly Morgan snake and a couple of Jonathan Yeos.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 May 2021 source ↗

Charlotte Church Welsh singer-songwriter and actress

When I was 18, I bought a boat for a million pounds and sold it a year later for just over half the price.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 July 2022 source ↗

Jack Dee

Probably a train ticket anywhere in the UK.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 November 2024 source ↗