Zandra Rhodes: 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 Zandra Rhodes said elsewhere, not written here

A plane to San Francisco, 25 years ago. There was a bang and I looked out of the window and saw flames coming out of one of the engines. We zoomed down to the airport below.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 July 2021 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 209 →

Pauline Black

I fell asleep in a room that had an oil heater and it filled with carbon monoxide and, if it hadn’t been for my husband, Terry, I would have died.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 April 2025 source ↗

Liam Gallagher English singer-songwriter

When I was about seven or eight years old, I was messing about in a brook with my brothers and a friend of mine, Paul Hewitt, and I almost drowned. Paul saved me.

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

Jeremy Deller English artist

Three squaddies on a train in 1995.

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

Kim Gordon American musician and artist

When I was little, I took a bunch of pills out of the cabinet because I was bored, when I was supposed to be taking a nap. I had to have my stomach pumped.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 March 2020 source ↗