Paul Heaton: 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 Paul Heaton said elsewhere, not written here

Again, too many times to mention, but probably being swung from the balcony at the top of the Columbia hotel in London by the bodyguard of a Saudi Arabian princess was fairly close.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 May 2020 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 ↗

Felicity Jones British actress

Nearly crashing into a train on one film, almost falling out of a hot-air balloon on another, narrowly avoiding getting knocked over by a taxi …

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 May 2023 source ↗

Jake Shears Singer and songwriter; co-lead vocalist of Scissor Sisters

Five years ago, a concrete plug, a little bigger than a baseball, fell off a building on Hollywood Boulevard when I was riding in an open convertible. It shattered the windshield. It really shook me. I still have it on my mantel.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 July 2021 source ↗

Marc Almond English singer