I was thrown out of a club by bouncers when I walked into somebody and told them that I was registered blind. They said: “Don’t give a fuck – you don’t belong in here.” As a straight white man, it gives you a taste of what other people have to contend with.
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
“You’ll never walk again.” This was when I was eight or nine and recovering from viral encephalitis.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 March 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 122 →A fellow artist called me a flaneur!
Edward Enninful
Ghanaian-born English editor and stylist
Any time I’ve been racially profiled. The words might be different, but the feeling is the same.
Another actress once said to me, “I’ve told you huge lies to make you feel good about yourself.” I’m not going to say who.
More from Maggie O'Farrell
View profile →All my clothes are secondhand, but I did buy a pair of new silver Vivienne Westwood shoes to get married in, which I still have.
Darnella Frazier, the teenager who filmed George Floyd’s murder. It took astonishing courage to stand on the pavement in front of those policemen, and we all owe her so much.
Last summer, swimming in a waterfall in Cumbria with my daughters.
Effervescence in the soul.
Interrupting or talking over people. As a stammerer, I am particularly alert to this.
I started stammering badly the first time I was on live radio, on Woman’s Hour on Radio 4. When I think about it now it brings me out in a cold sweat.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 366 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 69 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
Also answered this
Richard Coles, Jack Whitehall, Adam Kay, Paapa Essiedu, Robert Carlyle, Leona Lewis
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All failure & regret questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject