RH
Having a heart attack two days after my wife’s funeral.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 November 2016 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.
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Others on this question
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Adam Peaty
British swimmer; Olympic champion 2016 and 2021
I was on a cliff in Dartmoor, doing a Royal Marine abseil. I fell upside down and thought, “I’m going to die here.”
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
English interior designer and television personality
I was nearly hit by an enormous gold-fibreglass cherub in a shopping centre. It fell five storeys and smashed into a thousand pieces about 4ft away from me.
Felicity Jones
British actress
Nearly crashing into a train on one film, almost falling out of a hot-air balloon on another, narrowly avoiding getting knocked over by a taxi …
A running accident when I was 14 or 15. I fainted but I was a bit of a jester and they thought I was taking the piss, so I was left for a bit. I woke up in hospital.
More from Ronald Harwood
View profile →Murray Perahia, because he is a great pianist, and temporarily lost the use of one hand, which prevented him from playing. His courage was beyond description.
Basking in the sun.
Unpacking scenery from a pantechnicon for the Carl Rosa Opera Company.
The death of my wife: I’d happily have gone first.
A Mercedes S Class.
This morning. Thinking of my wife.
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