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 Sally Bercow said elsewhere, not written here
When I hit 40. I made a lot of mistakes in my 20s and spent most of my 30s changing nappies.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 August 2011 source ↗

Others on this question

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Meg Rosoff American novelist
Swimming in the North Sea at midnight, surrounded by phosphorescence.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 November 2013 source ↗

Irvine Welsh Scottish novelist
Happiness is mostly intrinsic: you’re either a happy soul or a miserable bastard. Fortunately, I’m the former.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 December 2016 source ↗

Nicholson Baker Contemporary American novelist and writer
When we had children at home. But recently I finished a book about old secrets that I’ve been working on for a long time, and when I was done, I felt a gigantic, joyful relief in having escaped from the corn maze of remembered facts in which I’d been wandering for so long.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 August 2020 source ↗

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Abi Morgan, Abigail Breslin, Adam Kay, Adeel Akhtar, Adrian Dunbar, Adrian Edmondson

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