Time & hindsight

When were you happiest?

585 answers answered between 1930 and 2026 one of 25 in The Q&A

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.

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Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.

Read by field Everyone Science and medicine 4 Arts and letters 494 Politics and public life 38 Business and finance 19 Sport 30
Read by age Any age Before thirty 25 In their thirties 83 In their forties 113 In their fifties 109 In their sixties 100 Seventy and beyond 77
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Winston Churchill Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1940–1945 and 1951–1955; Member of Parliament 1900–1964
But the years 1895 to 1900 which are the staple of this story exceed in vividness, variety and exertion anything I have known—except of course the opening months of the Great War. When I look back upon them I cannot but return my sincere thanks to the high gods for the gift of existence. All the days were good and each day better than the other. Ups and downs, risks and journeys, but always the sense of motion, and the illusion of hope.
Recorded Chapter of his autobiography, written at Chartwell in 1930, Winston S. Churchill, My Early Life (Thornton Butterworth, 1930), Project Gutenberg Canada, October 1930 source ↗
Ed Harris American actor and director
The day our daughter was born, or maybe fishing on the Colorado river with my wife and brother and his buddy Earl.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 August 2007 source ↗
Cybill Shepherd American actress and former model
Visiting my children at college. I don't stay long, because their lives are so busy - the way they should be.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 June 2008 source ↗
Fern Britton English television presenter and author
I am always happiest tucked up at home with my family.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 April 2009 source ↗
Jeanette Winterson Novelist and essayist
Happiness is planting the vegetables, sleeping with my girlfriend, running, doing my work, sitting by the fire with a book and a glass of wine... I need a reason to be unhappy, but do not need one to be quietly cheerful.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 December 2009 source ↗
Tina Brown British and American journalist
In my second year at Oxford University. There was much lolling over the side of punts on the river with languid male companions plying me with cheap champagne.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 May 2010 source ↗
Tim Robbins American actor
When I was shooting The Player – I was in love with life and fulfilled by my creative experience.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 October 2010 source ↗
Jools Holland English musician and television personality
Paradise is the moment you are in, so right now I'm happiest talking to you.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 December 2010 source ↗
Simon Russell Beale English actor
The morning after the opening of Hamlet in New York in 2000. The reviews were good and I actually punched the air – a very un-Simon Russell Beale thing to do.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 January 2011 source ↗
Benjamin Zephaniah British poet and author
In 1985, in St Elizabeth, Jamaica, sitting on the veranda with my grandmother, people-watching, and listening to poetry and local gossip.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2011 source ↗

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