The question
What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?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.
I am often happiest on a shoot with David LaChapelle, being pushed to the extremes – either suspended from a harness or immersed in a tank of water. He calls it “extreme modelling”.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 July 2024 source ↗
I’ll be at my happiest today, and probably my gloomiest at some point today, too.
When my three kids were born.
On the podium of the 100th Tour de France last year.
When I was a child and a teenager, before I got discovered.
I wanted to be in the army or a spy in the intelligence service.
Gossip and backstabbing.
As a force for good and a champion of the underdog.
Great. It feels wonderful – like a firework going off in your stomach.
Poetry. I start getting into a float state, and write stanzas and couplets in the middle of the night.
Discipline. Also to have a goal, however small and whatever it may be.
Clare Balding, John Grisham, James Taylor, Louis Smith, Jesse Jackson, Stuart Broad
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