Marian Keyes
Irish writer
Last Tuesday, lying on the couch, watching Schitt’s Creek with my husband. Happiness is the small, ordinary days, not the big, up-in-lights ones.
When were you happiest?
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
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.
When I realised that I could be a musician. I was 16.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 September 2022 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 577 →
Lucy Worsley
English historian
I think you can be happy every day, if you are in the flow.
I'm a happy guy in general, but the feeling of freedom and fun I got driving around with my friends in my first car is hard to top.
At the altar all seven times.
More from Courtney Pine
View profile →We were doing a tour in Japan and as our plane landed, it rose again, out of the blue. About 10 years later there was this programme about 10 of the nearest misses, and it was my flight. There was another plane on the runway and we nearly landed on top of it. I didn’t know until 10 years later.
I am not studious enough. I get easily distracted.
I would have spent more time practising and got a proper lawyer to sort out my first album contract.
A saxophone for £8,000.
When my new-born daughter Cleopatra died and I wasn’t there. I was doing a US tour and I remember sitting down in an airport and losing it.
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