Frank Bowling: What did you want to be when you were growing up?

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

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.

Recorded Frank Bowling said elsewhere, not written here

A detective. Or a writer. Or a poet.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 June 2026 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 204 →

Fay Ripley English actress, television presenter, cookbook author

Donny Osmond’s wife. Still do.

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

Matt Goss English singer-songwriter

I wanted to be like Vidal Sassoon and wear the three-piece suit and be part of pop culture.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 March 2022 source ↗

Mark Radcliffe

A drummer in a famous band or an astronaut.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 August 2025 source ↗

Hiroshi Mikitani Founder, chairman and chief executive of Rakuten

My job hunting days were at the height of the bubble economy. At the time, I was focused on joining big corporations and had no intention of myself becoming an entrepreneur. I started working at a major bank with a vague idea that I wanted "a job that would take me around the world."

Recorded Rakuten Group, Inc. source ↗