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.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 June 2017 source ↗
When my second child Bella was born in 2006. I missed my son Ben being born because I was racing, so seeing it for the first time was quite an experience.
The most unabashed joy I’ve ever felt was that first 24 hours of magic after our son was born in California last June.
Tramping through the woods in South Jersey in 1957 with my dog Bambi.
Escaping an abusive teen marriage and being blessed with the opportunity to create a new life for myself and my two young children in London at the height of the swinging 60s.
I would be richer, I’d have beaten Mrs Thatcher’s ban on women in the cabinet, and I would be a dame.
As health minister, I brought in breast and cervical cancer screening. And in 1994 I called the first debate on gay rights for a quarter-century and we got the age of consent down to 18. There are pubs in Brighton where I still can’t pay for a drink.
Not becoming chancellor.
Brighton, 1984. I was in another hotel just a few yards away.
Anxiety. Usually the best response is to think hard about things, work up some solutions and then go to sleep.
Jacqui Smith, Sarah Brown, Zoë Heller, Desmond Tutu, Ed Balls, John Simpson
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