Driven, authentic, resilient.
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
How close have you come to death?
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 exact standing prompt.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Unimpeachable, nonpareil, self‑effacing.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 January 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 111 →Steady, reaching, bewildered.
Curious, confident, cheerful.
Loving, creative, demanding.
More from Roger McGough
View profile →I had dreams of becoming the first scouse pope. Unfortunately, the girls got to me first.
Last Sunday when all the family came round to celebrate my 88th birthday. (Or was it Saturday. Or the week before, perhaps?)
I’m irritated by critics and academics who dismiss poetry that is popular, comprehensible or humorous.
I’m embarrassed when I get people’s names wrong.
Losing track (see above).
A picnic on the beach at Seaforth during the war. Somehow I managed to wriggle through a barbed-wire fence and run across a minefield. My teenage aunt Kat bravely followed suit and rescued me.
More on identity & self
Also answered this
Sharleen Spiteri, Indira Varma, Russell Mael, Kelly Hoppen, Ciarán Hinds, Mark Bonnar
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