Anne Woods (5 December 1947 – 29 March 2015) of Egremont, Cumbria, was a British gurner who won the women's world championship 28 times.^[1] Her world record was ratified by the Guinness Book of Records in November 2010, after a protracted effort to have it recognised.^[1] Known as "the world's ugliest woman",^[2][1] she regularly performed her four-minute gurning routine to her signature track, "You're Gorgeous" by Babybird.^[1][3]

Woods first started gurning in 1977, when her sons entered her into the competition at the Egremont Crab Fair as a joke.^[4] Her first victory came as a surprise to both Anne and her husband Alex, who started gurning himself more than 20 years later.^[4] Since her debut, she missed only one competition when she was pregnant with her daughter.^[1] Woods became a local community favourite, and as her subsequent successes were covered by the media, she was credited with putting Egremont "on the map".^[5][1] In his 2004 book True Brits, journalist J. R. Daeschner described Woods as a "diminutive, grey-headed granny" whose face normally had "a certain sweetness etched with the wrinkles from a lifetime of smoking", but that when she gurned, she transformed herself into "a crater-faced hag".^[4]

The book Fantastic Feats and Ridiculous Records suggested that Woods' success "could well be attributed to her being able to remove her dentures, making her wrinkled face as ugly as a squashed prune".^[6] Daeschner noted that Alex Woods was also able to remove his dentures, with the added advantage of having a broken nose.^[4] In September 2002, Anne Woods suffered a shock defeat, coming in second place to television presenter Michaela Strachan, who gurned cross-eyed.^[5] Her rare defeats included a one-off loss to Pauline Hoyle, a local rival who shouted "It's a fix!" each year when Woods won.^[4]

In September 2010, Woods collapsed at the Egremont Crab Fair and had to be taken to hospital after claiming her title.^[7][1] She died in 2015 at age 67.^[8]