Pauline Black: How close have you come to death?

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.

Recorded Pauline Black said elsewhere, not written here

I fell asleep in a room that had an oil heater and it filled with carbon monoxide and, if it hadn’t been for my husband, Terry, I would have died.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 April 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 209 →

Terry O'Neill British photographer

I was invited to Sharon Tate’s house the night she was murdered. I declined the invite due to jetlag.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 January 2017 source ↗

Emeli Sandé British singer

On a camping holiday in Scotland when I was nine: I was in an inflatable dinghy that drifted out to sea. A lifeboat had to come.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 January 2017 source ↗

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.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 February 2019 source ↗

Lemn Sissay

I made a suicide attempt at 12 or 13 years old.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗