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 your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
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.
I had some gynaecological issues that were very sudden, about 18 months ago, and felt that I might be dying. I wasn’t but it was quite serious.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 November 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
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Carl Barât
English musician
Probably when I didn’t sleep for a week on drugs in 2009. I’d had a lot of meth and my heart felt like it was giving out. I remember climbing over balconies really high up, and I thought I was going to die, until I eventually fell asleep in someone’s garden.
I was stabbed in my 20s. It was a late-night mugging and, while taking my wallet, they stabbed me in my chest.
Kim Wilde
English pop singer
When I was three and had meningitis.
More from Rebecca Lucy Taylor
View profile →Having no way of earning money.
On stage at the Brixton Academy on the third night of the residency I did there. I walked out and could not stop crying, some sort of mad relief that it’s all paid off and it’s all been worth it.
I would not like to know what my total massage budget is.
I’d like all my effort noticed.
My internalised misogyny that still manages to cloud some of my thinking.
I am consistently disappointed in the music industry. Every time someone says that I’m underrated, that feels extremely disappointing because I’ve done my end of the bargain.
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- What song would you like played at your funeral? 178 answers
- If you had only one day left to live, how would you spend it — and what would you deliberately avoid doing? 54 answers
- What happens when we die? 51 answers
- What would you like to leave your children? 46 answers
- How would you like to die? 44 answers
Also answered this
Carl Barât, Lemn Sissay, George Takei, Emeli Sandé, Hamza Yassin, Jack Davenport
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