Shane’s first ghost-written book is the heartbreaking and inspiring story of one woman’s struggle to get out of the darkness.
In Running from the Shadows Stephanie Hickey tells, in her own words, how she survived abuse at the hands of a trusted family member and of how running, a simple physical activity helped her achieve mindfulness, but also to rediscover love and faith in her body – to reclaim it. Charting her life growing up in the rolling countryside of Waterford in the safety of her beloved family to the moment her childhood was shattered, to the court case where she waived her anonymity, to how she was able to reclaim a sense of herself through the sport which became like a therapy, Running from the Shadows is told with humour, strength and incredible courage — a book that reveals how, even when things seem at their bleakest, a run through the Irish countryside, can bring you back into the light.
Shane acted as ghost-writer for this remarkable biography of Irish hotelier, businessman and TV star, John Brennan.
‘The greatest selling point you have is to be different – to bring something to the table no one else has’
As a child, John Brennan wasn’t an obvious candidate for success. School was a difficult, upsetting place and he was always at the bottom of the class. His battle with dyslexia meant that he felt stigmatised by a society that didn’t understand him. Yet his determination to not be defined by his dyslexia created an ambition that has been matched by his business acumen.
Now in his mid-fifties, John’s optimism is still flowing. It is a measure of his character that, on being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the first thing he did was to buy a very uncared for Dromquinna Manor on a waterfront estate on 46 acres of overgrown grounds. Ten years later, in the midst of a world pandemic that saw hotels closed all over the world, John again bought a new hotel.
This is a fascinating account of a man with the vision to create his own life against the odds that will inspire people everywhere to find their own way too.
Shane Dunphy 