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 Q&A, The Guardian, 26 April 2025 source ↗
The mid- to late 80s, summers spent at Park End Farm in Atherton – ankle deep in horse manure and soaking wet from falls from badly constructed rope swings across streams.
When I was a child and a teenager, before I got discovered.
When I was young and carefree, before I realised what the obstacles were that we face as black people. I was raised in a beautiful home with incredible parents. They allowed me to enjoy what it was to be a child.
British summers give me a really happy feeling. My bedroom at our family home in Harrow looks out on to our garden and a cricket field, and you just know when it’s the first day of summer.
Oh, most days. I can watch a political programme and think, “That sounds a really good point.” Then someone will argue the opposite and I’ll think, “Yeah, he’s got a point as well.” I am constantly sitting on a fence.
Not being able to laugh at themselves.
Always trying to turn things into a joke.
Three degrees: I paid my kids’ uni fees.
By people smiling or shaking their heads. I’ll even take rolling their eyes.
What I studied at college – A-level economics.
Marianne Faithfull, Sally Bercow, Lucy Beaumont, Julien Macdonald, Graham Norton, Patti LaBelle
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