My late wife – she died of cancer. We tried everything we could do to save her. I wish that I could have done more and that I could have been with her at the moment she passed away. I couldn’t be in that room, because I knew it would be so devastating that I wouldn’t be able to take care of the kids after.
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
To my Latin teacher – I was very naughty.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 March 2018 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 209 →
Sandi Toksvig
Danish and British broadcaster, comedian and writer
Any fashion designer whose clothes on me must have made them weep.
Neil Gaiman
Author of fiction, comics and screenplays
My soon-to-be ex-wife, Amanda. I wish I’d been able to do whatever would have been necessary all the way back to keep us as a unit. Probably the worst thing I did was not tell her how miserable I was, certain that I could turn this around somehow.
Chris Hoy
British track cyclist, 1994–2013
Max Levy, a German sprint cyclist who came second behind me a lot.
More from Joanna Scanlan
View profile →Never getting back to a size 12.
An actor or a nun.
At the BBC, in the old days, a piece of paper was sent to various households for them to report on what they’d watched that week. In my early 20s, I collated the data. It was deeply boring.
Having someone to love.
The plastics episode of Blue Planet.
Swimming down the Thames on a full moon night 10 years ago. It was dangerous, but extremely joyful.
More on failure & regret
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- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 122 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 60 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
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