Benjamin Zephaniah
British poet and author
Not having children.
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This exact question recurs in The Guardian's institutional Q&A pool.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
That the last general election didn’t take place later. We might have got rid of the Tories with a couple more weeks.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 February 2018 source ↗
Others on this question
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Nicola Adams
British boxer
Losing in the 2012 world championships final.
Andrew O'Hagan
Scottish author
The internet. Such potential for good and for levelling up the world, but such a quagmire in reality.
Serena Williams
United States professional tennis player, 1995–2022
Any lost match is, of course, disappointing, but every loss is a lesson to be learned.
More from Julie Hesmondhalgh
View profile →To all those whose fleeting interaction with me has fallen short of what they’d hoped; the unwitting recipients of my occasional grumpiness.
An old camper van that has cost me more in repairs than my house, my wedding and all the holidays I’ve ever been on.
Childbirth. And the wheel of our camper van coming clean off on the M1.
Every time I got drunk and out of order. Especially in my teens and 20s.
Worrying that I’ve upset people.
I cleaned for a very posh lady in Knightsbridge who made me handwash her knickers. I’d advertised myself in The Lady as a dog walker, so I’m not sure how I ended up there.
More on failure & regret
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 122 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 69 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
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