A Page from My Life Stories from a Nation in L Ray D'Arcy (editor)

‘We asked listeners to be honest, creative, funny, engaging and evocative in their writing … to try to make us laugh, cry and think. We never imagined we would get the quantity and quality of entries that we did for A Page from My Life.’ – Ray D’Arcy

In the midst of the Covid crisis, the Ray D’Arcy Show invited RTÉ Radio 1 listeners to send in ‘A Page from My Life’: 500 words on a memorable event, or a story simply worth sharing. The response was overwhelming. Ray and his team were inundated with over 2,500 entries, from authors of all ages and all walks of life.

And what those entries created was an extraordinary picture of Irish life in microcosm. Funny and heart-breaking, poignant and surprising, they told a series of unforgettable stories … moments that changed everything, and where life itself seemed to hang in the balance. Quiet reflections on the meaning of love and loss. Hilarious tales of everyday mishaps, chance encounters, and feats of pure imagination. It was a timely reminder of the experiences and values that unite us, even as circumstances contrived to keep us apart.

Introduced by the Ray D’Arcy Show judges – bestselling authors Donal Ryan (The Spinning Heart), Emilie Pine (Notes to Self), Emer McLysaght (the Aisling series) and Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl) – A Page From My Life gathers 150 of these stories to form an exhilarating and moving testament to the wonder of everyday life.