Elaine Paige
English singer and actress
The Queen. Long may she reign.
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's Q&A repeatedly uses this prompt, sometimes dropping 'living' while retaining the same comparative judgment.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Angela Merkel; she seems wise, compassionate, curiously huggable.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 February 2016 source ↗
Others on this question
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John Simpson
English journalist
The problem with my job is that you meet people you admire and then you don’t admire them so much. The only one I carried on admiring was Nelson Mandela.
Gloria Steinem
Writer and feminist organiser
Dr Denis Mukwege, because he is to sexualised violence against females what Mandela was to apartheid.
Hans Zimmer
Film composer
Sir David Attenborough, John Prendergast.
More from Bill Bryson
View profile →Nothing. It’s too risky. What if you eliminated a misjudged situation from your life and it turned out that one of your children wasn’t born, or you failed to meet your partner?
When I had my catheter taken out, thanks for asking.
When the Guardian called me a scaremonger for wanting to preserve London’s green belt.
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