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.
Last year. I was with my wife and all my kids in northern California, driving an RV. I remember thinking that life couldn’t possibly get any better.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 December 2018 source ↗
This morning. I had a typical day: got up early, took the dog for a walk, went to the gym for an hour, then wrote for four hours. That makes me a very happy person.
As a young child in the West Indies and having fun with my friends, playing sport and hanging about.
With my family in Wales.
In my 40s: I had two children young enough to think their parents wonderful, my business was booming, I was happily married and living in the Cotswolds with a veg garden and ponies in the paddock. Who could not be happy?
I wanted to race cars.
My singing career.
Getting all four kids to school in the morning.
To Mark Smith, a boy we bullied at primary school. I’ve always felt terrible about it.
Stacey Dooley. She does incredible documentaries – in one, she took spoiled British kids to the Philippines to work in a factory. It’s exactly what my kids need to watch.
Pauline McLynn, Tom Ellis, Samuel L Jackson, Julie Andrews, Brian Cox, Sofie Gråbøl
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