Oversharing my personal life, but here we are, oversharing!
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's The Q&A has retained this Proust-derived prompt from at least 2007 through 2026, and ABC independently put it to the Obamas in 2011.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
The only drink I really, really like is champagne.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 April 2022 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 243 →I’m so tempted to answer serial killer.
Guy Pearce
Australian actor
My fear of confrontation.
Cybill Shepherd
American actress and former model
Acting like the good little girl.
More from Rose Tremain
View profile →Meryl Streep. For all her truthful and perfected offerings that have taken me to an “elsewhere”, in which my mind could feel both soothed and stimulated.
Working as the assistant to an agony aunt on a women’s magazine. When we didn’t get enough heartbreaking letters, we made them up.
A cream suit from Chanel that cost almost as much as a small car.
The film of Restoration. A beautiful cast. An award-winning designer. A massive budget. A dog’s dinner.
When I first met Richard, in 1992, on a British Council writers’ tour of Adelaide. We were drinking Australian lager while parakeets squawked rudely in the neighbourhood gumtrees.
We live in a fearful age: Brexit, Covid, global warming, cancel culture, war in Ukraine. Add in pancreatic cancer and you find me in an advanced and complex state of anxiety.
More on identity & self
Also answered this
Jack Whitehall, Carrie Fisher, Judy Blume, Adam Kay, Danielle Steel, Pauline McLynn
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Explore further
- All identity & self questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject