There are so many instances when I’ve come very close to death that it’s difficult to pick one.
How close have you come to death?
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
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.
Despite a stroke, cancer as a child and various dramas with chainsaws and tractors, the closest was probably when I choked on a lamb chop 25 years ago. Sarah performed the Heimlich manoeuvre and the lamb shot out.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 May 2018 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 210 →
Alison Moyet
English singer
When I was doing my gold swimming badge. I had to get undressed in a swimming pool and had forgotten my gym kit, so the teacher gave me a kit two sizes too small. In the water, I got my arms up over my head to get the shirt off and they locked. I sank to the bottom of the pool and sat there until a girl jumped in and dragged me back up again.
Eve Ensler
American playwright, performer, feminist, and activist
Nine years ago I discovered I had stage 3/4 uterine cancer and went through nine months of excruciating surgery, illness and chemotherapy. In that time, I touched death and it was the most powerful transformation of my life. I was forced to learn to take care of my body.
Erin O'Connor
English model
An emergency landing in a snow storm in Philadelphia.
More from Monty Don
View profile →I once had to dig a fire escape from a basement in a health club. It took two weeks.
At the time, losing our business, home and all our possessions in 1991 after the failure of our jewellery company. But if that had not happened then other good things would not have happened, either.
Getting my 21-year-old knees back.
A tractor, 12 years ago. Bright yellow and still brilliant.
My children. I was away an awful lot when they were little and not very good at being a father when I was around. I could have done better.
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Sandi Toksvig, Lance Black, Ronald Harwood, Irvine Welsh, Fatima Bhutto, Maggie O'Farrell
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