How close have you come to death?

Originally asked

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

A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

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

Recorded Lance Black said elsewhere, not written here
On a flight between Beijing and London with Team GB divers. There was a fire on the plane. We landed on a long-abandoned strip in Siberia. Two days later, the same flight attendants told us we had beaten the odds by surviving.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 June 2019 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 209 →
Emeli Sandé British singer
On a camping holiday in Scotland when I was nine: I was in an inflatable dinghy that drifted out to sea. A lifeboat had to come.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 January 2017 source ↗

Ian McEwan British novelist and screenwriter
Having a gun held to my head at a May Day rally during the revolution in Grenada. I was mistaken for a CIA agent.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 August 2018 source ↗

Andrea Bocelli
As a young man I had a car accident on a foggy night that left the vehicle looking like a squashed box, even though, by some miracle, I walked away unscathed.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 November 2024 source ↗

More from Lance Black

View profile →

More on death & what remains

Also answered this · A–Z

Adam Clayton, Adam Peaty, Adeel Akhtar, Adrian Edmondson, Aidan Gillen, Alex Lawther

Search the directory for somebody in particular.

Explore further

Report this answer