Five to 10, when I was just playing out and I didn’t realise I was a girl. Before my boobs came in, basically.
When were you happiest?
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
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.
When I realised that I could be a musician. I was 16.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 September 2022 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 576 →
Michael Palin
English actor
Flying in over London on a cool, clean morning after a long time away.
Michael Morpurgo
British children's writer
When I was a young father and teaching at a local primary school in Kent.
John Waters
American filmmaker
Chasing after fire engines as a child with my dad and watching neighbours' houses burn to the ground.
More from Courtney Pine
View profile →When my new-born daughter Cleopatra died and I wasn’t there. I was doing a US tour and I remember sitting down in an airport and losing it.
I would have spent more time practising and got a proper lawyer to sort out my first album contract.
A saxophone for £8,000.
We were doing a tour in Japan and as our plane landed, it rose again, out of the blue. About 10 years later there was this programme about 10 of the nearest misses, and it was my flight. There was another plane on the runway and we nearly landed on top of it. I didn’t know until 10 years later.
I am not studious enough. I get easily distracted.
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