Analytical, extreme and playful.
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's weekly The Q&A repeatedly uses this exact standing prompt.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Resourceful, resilient and compassionate.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 March 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 111 →Brave, naughty, diligent.
Driven, sensitive and playful.
Fizzy like lemonade.
More from Chris Bonington
View profile →It’s my snoring that keeps Loreto awake!
Everest the hard way in 1975: leading the expedition that succeeded where so many people had tried and failed. That was the most complex mountaineering challenge I ever faced. I spent hours at night in a little tent thinking about what the next problem would be and how to solve it.
I was a huge daydreamer and imagined myself as a successful general leading his troops into battle.
Becoming more physically active.
There are so many instances when I’ve come very close to death that it’s difficult to pick one.
Whenever things seem absolutely terrible, to see that you’re alive and that’s all that matters.
More on identity & self
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Ally McCoist, Gregory Porter, Ali Abbasi, Richard Eyre, Adele Parks, Esther Freud
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