The greatest fear I can remember is coming back from WW II and being amazed that I was more afraid to audition for a job than I was flying 52 missions.
What is your greatest fear?
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
Which book are you ashamed not to have read?
Taste & recommendation
Question
What scares you about getting older?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
When was the last time you changed your mind about something?
Change of mind
Originally asked
Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire
The exact prompt is fixed in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire and independently sustained in The Guardian's The Q&A over multiple decades.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Getting to the end and thinking that I haven’t laughed enough.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 January 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 256 →Unemployment – I’m an actor.
There’s no point living at my age with many ingrained great fears. Though I do have that dream that I walk out onto the stage nude. Does that count?
Daphne Guinness
British socialite
Aggression without provocation or consequences.
More from Helen Skelton
View profile →After the 2012 Olympics I hosted the parade. I had on a little skirt and when the prime minister came on everyone cheered. I thought: “Oh my God, they love David Cameron,” but they were cheering because my skirt had blown up, and I’d flashed my knickers at him.
Chaotic, warm, northern.
My new year resolution is actually to read all the classics and I’m ashamed that I haven’t read everything by the Brontë sisters.
Losing my eyesight – I live for the view, and the sunset and the sunrise.
That you get out of life what you put in. When you grow up on a farm you literally reap what you sow.
There’s a house near me that I adore and it came up for sale, and I got to the point of nearly buying it and then pulled out because I’m trying to be sensible.
More on identity & self
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- What did you want to be when you were growing up? 196 answers
- What most recently made you cry? 193 answers
- What is your idea of perfect happiness? 158 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 112 answers
- What are you most proud of? 104 answers
Also answered this
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Tim Peake, Charles Dance, Roger Ebert, Rose Tremain, Charles Osgood
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