Robert Peston: When were you happiest?

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.

Recorded Robert Peston said elsewhere, not written here

With my late wife, Siân Busby, and our boys, Max and Simon, on assorted Welsh and English beaches, in sunshine and rain – especially when there was a Punch and Judy show on the prom.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 June 2018 source ↗

Others on this question

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Sue Townsend English writer and humorist

Flying over the Australian outback in a jet, looking down at the incredible orange scenery, the uninhabited hills and gullies, listening to Tchaikovsky on my headphones and drinking champagne with a cigarette in my hand. It was 1984, I'd been to the Adelaide Book Festival and was going back to my husband and my children.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 January 2007 source ↗

Beth Ditto American singer

When everyone else is happy.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 July 2012 source ↗

Tim Peake British Army Air Corps officer and astronaut

My happiest moments are when I am wild camping with my family in Scotland and cooking on a fire by a river.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 October 2022 source ↗

Gary Numan British musician

Now. I enjoy what I do for a living, the children are here and I am still happily married after 25 years.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 July 2017 source ↗

More from Robert Peston

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Question How close have you come to death? Death & what remains

Being driven across the Atlas Mountains in a snowstorm 25 years ago, by a local taxi driver who plainly put a lower premium on the advantages of living than me.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 June 2018 source ↗