The question
As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I wanted to be like my dad, who was an academic, because he had an office packed full of books, always had loud music on, and seemed to get to do what he wanted.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 February 2022 source ↗
A ballet dancer, but it changed to being an actress when I got put in a school play.
What I am now, but with a better singing voice.
A cellist, inspired by my mum and dad’s friendship with Jacqueline du Pré, and seeing a documentary about her.
The male Whitney Houston.
The Strictly Come Dancing final almost destroyed me. I was howling all the way through – John and Johannes and then Rose and Giovanni. Oh my God.
There are different flavours of happy, but I think my favourite is the quiet contentment when several generations of family are sitting together watching a crowd-pleaser like Harry Potter on the telly.
I’d rather be enjoyed while I am still here.
A caravan. I was brought up going on caravan holidays – but we quickly realised that a double-axle caravan was too much of a commitment and sold it.
My biggest disappointment is always myself. That’s my Catholic upbringing.
It would have been lovely to have grown up in private like a lot of my friends.
Dawn O’Porter, Samuel West, Frank Bowling, Stockard Channing, Engelbert Humperdinck, Philippa Dunne
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