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.
British summers give me a really happy feeling. My bedroom at our family home in Harrow looks out on to our garden and a cricket field, and you just know when it’s the first day of summer.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 May 2019 source ↗
When there’s a big Sunday lunch and all my children are there.
Whenever I finish good work.
The delivery room when my children and grandchildren were born.
When I am working on something I really like, or when I am alone with my son playing in the garden.
I had heart surgery when I was 17. The other time was when I fell off my piano. My head was an inch away from a metal step.
That all the cliches about people in the music industry are true.
Everyone I ever met in 2007, because I was definitely about two hours late.
Surviving the music industry. I think it’s been responsible for killing a lot of musicians. Lots of us have mental health issues, and drink and drug problems, and the industry doesn’t really care.
My mum, because she’s been a nurse for over 40 years. She works in a hospice, and there’s no bullshit with her.
Bonnie Raitt, Annie Lennox, Sue Perkins, Björn Ulvaeus, Neneh Cherry, Martin Kemp
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