Seann Walsh: How close have you come to dying?

The question

How close have you come to dying?

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.

Seann Walsh

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

When I was about two, I accidentally knocked a boiled kettle on myself. I am scarred, in many ways, from that.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 January 2026 source ↗

Others on this question

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Siobhán McSweeney

Physically, falling off my bike two years ago. Emotionally, when my mother died when I was 27.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 December 2023 source ↗

Jonathan Rhys Meyers Irish actor

I’ve been in six car accidents – none of them while I was driving.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 August 2018 source ↗

Sandy Powell British costume designer

When I rode on the back of a motorbike from London to Rome with my eyes closed the entire way.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 September 2019 source ↗

Lance Black American screenwriter, director, producer and activist

On a flight between Beijing and London with Team GB divers. There was a fire on the plane. We landed on a long-abandoned strip in Siberia. Two days later, the same flight attendants told us we had beaten the odds by surviving.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 June 2019 source ↗