Living in London in the late 60s—setting my hair with beer cans and shopping for shoes in Knightsbridge.
When were you happiest?
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
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 received my scholarship to art school in 1945.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 May 2019 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 577 →
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Basketball player and author
My college years, when everything was possible and I felt physically invulnerable.
Alexa Chung
English television presenter
Playing ping pong in LA.
Joshua Ferris
American author
Whenever it was, I didn't realise it fully.
More from Judith Kerr
View profile →No one I can think of, but lots of people no longer living.
Not having longer legs.
My parents. We didn’t realise how absolutely desperate they were when we left Germany, because my father couldn’t earn anything. A letter turned up fairly recently in which he said, “We’ve been through a terrible time because Julia [my mother] never stopped talking about suicide and not just for herself, but to take the children with her.”
Secretary to a lawyer. I was sacked after a week.
Nothing, really, because it was all interesting.
More on time & hindsight
- What is the most important lesson life has taught you? 137 answers
- What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore? 77 answers
- What scares you about getting older? 61 answers
- What is the best advice you have ever received? 28 answers
- If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, what would it say and why? 23 answers
- What is something you were told by a parent, teacher, or mentor that you still repeat to yourself? 22 answers
Also answered this
Bernadine Evaristo, Fatima Bhutto, Reece Shearsmith, Val McDermid, George Saunders, John Grisham
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All time & hindsight questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject