Mary McCartney: As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?

The question

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Mary McCartney

English photographer and cookbook author

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

A nurse, because my grandmother was a midwife. I was named after her but never got to meet her.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 February 2022 source ↗

Others on this question

My brother Joe, he’s nine years older than me.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 May 2026 source ↗

Gareth Bale Welsh footballer

I just wanted to fulfil my potential.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 August 2021 source ↗

Jessica Raine British actress

I was fidgety and clueless for a long time.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 March 2019 source ↗

Victoria Pendleton British cyclist

A vet, but I wasn’t smart enough.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 July 2017 source ↗

It feels healthy and it makes your body tingle and you feel excited to be alive.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 February 2022 source ↗

Through food, I’ve become more interested in the protection of soil, the way things are grown, and biodiversity. I’d have become a quantum physicist!

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 February 2022 source ↗

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