Edwina Currie
Former British politician, broadcaster and writer
I would be richer, I’d have beaten Mrs Thatcher’s ban on women in the cabinet, and I would be a dame.
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Repeated verbatim in The Guardian's long-running Saturday Q&A; two publisher-hosted examples establish recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I would be less naive.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 September 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 203 →
Jenna Coleman
English actress
I would take away fear.
Aidan Gillen
Irish actor
The floral waistcoat and shocking-pink shirt combo I wore on my 21st.
Russell Howard
British comedian and presenter
I wouldn’t lose my virginity at an army camp and then roll over on to an ants’ nest.
More from Penny Lancaster
View profile →Less time on my phone.
It was reading out loud, but no longer. (I am dyslexic.) I was encouraged by my husband to do a speech for the Royal National Institute of Blind People, which helped me gain my confidence, and the fear disappeared.
Honest, empathetic, daring.
The children. As a mother you are constantly worrying whether you’ve done the right thing.
An English teacher said, “You’ll never make anything of yourself.”
In a different sense, I’ve helped to try to resuscitate a dead man.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 366 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 122 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 63 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
Also answered this
Tuppence Middleton, Harlan Coben, David Harewood, Toby Stephens, Zack Polanski, Isla Fisher
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All failure & regret questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject