Philippa Perry: 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.

Philippa Perry

Psychotherapist and author

Recorded 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

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George Takei

After the war, when I was about nine, we were held up in our home. The robbers grabbed my father and had a gun at his throat. It was terrifying. My mother got a wad of money and gave it to the people, and they ran away.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 November 2019 source ↗

Bear Grylls

Where do I begin? There have been a lot.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 January 2026 source ↗

Desmond Tutu Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984

And actually now having had the advantage of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and being able to look at some of the records of what the apartheid government was doing, the thing that is surprising to me is why so many of us survived. I mean, how is it that they did not assassinate more of us?

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview source ↗

Julian Clary English actor, comedian, novelist and presenter