SK
I’m convinced heartache almost killed me a few years ago.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 February 2017 source ↗
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.
Others on this question
View all 209 →
Fatima Bhutto
Pakistani writer
I don’t know. I prefer it that way.
Joseph Fiennes
English actor
Climbing in Tibet, surfing in Australia and a moment ago by a courgette cutter as I dithered over one of these questions.
Irvine Welsh
Scottish novelist
When a pal grabbed hold of me as I fell into an unbanistered stairwell at a rave. Would have been curtains, but for his sharp reaction.
Joanne Froggatt
English actress
I was in a car crash when I was 16, and I have a little scar on my face from smashing the passenger window with my head. If the car had rolled, I would have been dead.
More from Shappi Khorsandi
View profile →Life modelling for a woman who made me recite Shakespeare as I posed. I had a hangover, and it was all a bit much.
Teachers who recognise that each child is different.
A walk-on part for my mum in Les Misérables. It was in a charity auction. She always dreamed of being in a West End show.
Right now. Ask me again when my children are grown, and I’ll sob, “When they loved me more than that woman/man they’ve shacked up with.”
Getting an A for my English A-level. I’m dyslexic; it was never detected and I was written off as scatty and lazy. This proved everyone wrong, including me.
A miniature pet elephant, one that is no bigger than a guinea pig.
More on death & what remains
- How would you want people to remember you? 213 answers
- What song would you want played at your funeral? 178 answers
- If you had only one day left, how would you spend it — and what would you deliberately avoid? 54 answers
- What do you believe happens when we die? 50 answers
- What would you most want to leave your children? 44 answers
- What kind of death would you consider a good one? 43 answers
Also answered this
Ram Dass, Vanessa Redgrave, Ed Harris, Bear Grylls, Simone Biles, Bernadine Evaristo
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