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Anna Derrig

Anna Derrig is a freelance writer

January 2024

  • Perpetual Uke sitting on a white carpet in front of a black leather sofa and chair, with a little boy, Pascal, sitting on her lap holding a toy guitar, and his twin sister, Palmer, sitting next to her playing with another toy

    Experience
    Experience: I woke up from a Covid coma with newborn twins

    Even when I saw the babies, I thought it was a dream and they weren’t mine

October 2023

  • Milk deliverer Davina Bruce, holding milk bottles and standing in front of her van

    Experience
    Experience: I’ve been delivering milk for 50 years – but I don’t drink it

    I got my own round at 17, as soon as I passed my driving test, and have stayed so long because I really enjoy it

June 2023

  • Noh Hyun-soo, who ate a banana that was an artwork worth $120,000, holding up an empty banana skin

    Experience
    Experience: I ate a $120,000 banana

  • Tian Rui in Qingdao, China, with his replica of the Forbidden City’s Hall of Supreme Harmony.

    Experience
    Experience: I built a house of cards 50 storeys high

April 2023

  • Portrait of runner Alex Prior

    Experience
    Experience: I proposed while running the London Marathon

    I tried to get down on one knee, but because of cramp it was more of a lunge

January 2023

  • Joe Jacquest Oteng

    Experience
    Experience: after my dad died, I tracked down his secret family

    When I came across the box of papers, I was shocked by the extent of Dad’s lies

November 2022

  • Stef Harvey with her husband, Richard

    Experience
    Experience: I lost my memory – and fell in love with my husband for the second time

    When I see our wedding photos, it’s like looking at someone else’s

July 2022

  • Ian Murphy with his dog Rocket in Dubai

    Experience
    Experience: I rescued a camel from quicksand

    She was running out of energy and howling like a banshee

June 2022

  • Rob Abbott, a metal detectorist, photographed in a field in Essex.

    Experience
    Experience: I found a hoard of 161 Roman coins in one weekend

    We’d been searching the area for 10 years – the one I found was 1,600 years old. It was a detector’s dream

December 2021

  • Celeste Hicks with academic Alan Wilson in London

    Experience
    Experience: I was orphaned at Christmas – and saved by kind strangers

    We found out Dad owed all this money. Now his creditors wanted our house

October 2021

  • Peter Watson

    Experience
    Experience: I escaped an Arctic wildfire

    We put down our sleeping bags to wait it out but within minutes the smoke had engulfed us

July 2021

  • Sheelagh Stewart holding a photograph of her children

    Experience
    Experience: I was pregnant at the same time as my partner

    The first three months were torrid. Kathleen would be sick in the morning, and I’d be sick in the afternoon
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