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 Jeremy Deller said elsewhere, not written here
Three squaddies on a train in 1995.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 June 2020 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 209 →
Carl Barât English musician
Probably when I didn’t sleep for a week on drugs in 2009. I’d had a lot of meth and my heart felt like it was giving out. I remember climbing over balconies really high up, and I thought I was going to die, until I eventually fell asleep in someone’s garden.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 March 2022 source ↗
Bruce Dickinson English heavy metal singer
I’ve been asleep at the wheel on the M11, had an engine fire over the Atlantic in a light aircraft, driven unprotected through an enemy firing zone to do a gig in wartime Sarajevo – the list goes on and on. But I did have stage 3 throat cancer and was cured by some fantastic UK medics.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 July 2024 source ↗
Sheryl Crow American singer-songwriter
I was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago, but so early that I knew it wasn’t a death sentence. Until we get a cure for cancer, early detection is our best hope.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 April 2017 source ↗
Joanne Froggatt English actress
I was in a car crash when I was 16, and I have a little scar on my face from smashing the passenger window with my head. If the car had rolled, I would have been dead.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 February 2019 source ↗

More from Jeremy Deller

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