Philippa Perry: How close have you come to death?

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 Philippa Perry said elsewhere, not written here

I’m closer today than I was yesterday.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 June 2021 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 209 →

Lemn Sissay

I made a suicide attempt at 12 or 13 years old.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗

Roger McGough

A picnic on the beach at Seaforth during the war. Somehow I managed to wriggle through a barbed-wire fence and run across a minefield. My teenage aunt Kat bravely followed suit and rescued me.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 January 2026 source ↗

Esther Freud

My parents died within four days of each other. I was engulfed as I ran from one bedside to another.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 July 2026 source ↗

Ram Dass Spiritual teacher and author

I was close to death, and I didn't rush into my spirit. I spent the time in the hospital just looking at the pipes on the ceiling. ... I failed because this was a trauma, a trauma, and I'm not reacting to it spiritually.

Recorded Ross Simonini, The Believer, issue 115, by Skype from Hawaii, 20 November 2017 source ↗