A dress designer.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 August 2026 source ↗
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
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
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
A vet, but then I discovered you needed qualifications.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 November 2017 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 191 →
James Dyson
British inventor and businessman
I had no idea whatsoever, and nor did anyone else. I thought I’d go to art school and see whether I liked it – and of course I did, and stayed.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 December 2021 source ↗
Marina Abramović
Performance artist
Exactly what I am now.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 October 2024 source ↗
Riz Ahmed
British actor and rapper
I wanted to perform in some way, but I didn’t think it was viable. Teachers told me I should be a barrister, because I was always arguing with them.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 April 2021 source ↗
More from Marc Almond
View profile →A black Mercedes 500 coupé in the mid-1980s. I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I’d seen. (I had been clubbing the night before.) And I can’t drive.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 November 2017 source ↗
The motorcycle crash, but also when a neon sign fell on my head in Soho in the 90s.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 November 2017 source ↗
In the school holidays, I worked at a soft drinks factory in Southport.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 November 2017 source ↗
To my first real boyfriend, for being so mean to him. But really I was just being mean to myself.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 November 2017 source ↗
Still being here, aged 60. If I thought I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 November 2017 source ↗
In my first bedsit when I went to art college in Leeds. It was a hideous basement, but I loved the freedom.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 November 2017 source ↗
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