A business-class flight. Pure indulgence.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 May 2025 source ↗
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
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Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
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What song would you like played at your funeral?
Death & what remains
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's weekly The Q&A repeatedly uses this standing prompt, with minor contractions and word-order variation.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
A pair of Russell & Bromley boots with studs. I have had them for eight years and wear them all the time.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2020 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 196 →
Carlos Acosta
Cuban ballet dancer
A 1955 Jaguar XK120. It was not in very good condition and, little by little, I brought it back to its former splendour.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 September 2018 source ↗
Rosanna Arquette
American actress
A ring I bought at Reinstein Ross for myself after a big break-up. It was kind of shallow.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 August 2021 source ↗
Monty Don
English horticulturist, broadcaster, and writer
A tractor, 12 years ago. Bright yellow and still brilliant.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 May 2018 source ↗
More from Bernadine Evaristo
View profile →Travelling Europe with a friend, when I was 29. She was driving and the brakes went, on one of those vertiginous Italian mountains. It was terrifying for the 20 minutes it took to coast down the mountain.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2020 source ↗
On a cosmetics production line. I walked out after half a day.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2020 source ↗
I cried after I won the Booker.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2020 source ↗
When I met my husband, David, in 2006, on Dating Direct.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2020 source ↗
The people I never thanked for what they selflessly gave me in my career; when I was younger I just took it for granted.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2020 source ↗
Disappear by Beyoncé.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2020 source ↗
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