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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.

PL
Prue Leith

South African-British chef, broadcaster, and writer

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
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?

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 May 2012 source ↗

Others on this question

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Sue Townsend English writer and humorist
Flying over the Australian outback in a jet, looking down at the incredible orange scenery, the uninhabited hills and gullies, listening to Tchaikovsky on my headphones and drinking champagne with a cigarette in my hand. It was 1984, I'd been to the Adelaide Book Festival and was going back to my husband and my children.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 January 2007 source ↗
John Lithgow
Probably the curtain call of my final performance when I played King Lear.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, October 2024 source ↗
Victoria Derbyshire British broadcaster
On my wedding day, 21 July 2018. Mark and I had been together for 17 years but, having got through breast cancer treatment, we decided we’d finally get married.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 September 2021 source ↗

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