A Solitary Confinement by Robin Sheppard

A Solitary Confinement
Robin Sheppard
Ecademy Press, £10.99
ISBN978-1-905823-25-3

The hospitality industry is always alive with good stories and anecdotes - it is a "people" industry, after all - but often those reminiscences remain tales passed down by word of mouth. Sometimes, however, pen is put to paper and experiences are shared with a wider audience. This is the case with the three books featured this week.

Actually, Robin Sheppard's book doesn't really deal with his heyday as a hotelier in the 1990s - he set up the Bristol Hotel Group, and was also the GM of the Bath Spa hotel back in its Forte days. Instead, it tells the story of the last few years of his life since he was first struck down with Guillain-Barré disease, a debilitating immune syndrome illness that left him, initially, paralysed from the neck down.

The book is rambling in parts, but honestly portrays the emotions of dealing with serious illness: the frustrations, the anger, even the funny things that arise daily. If you knew Sheppard, but have lost touch in the last half-decade, this will bring you up to date with his life. All proceeds from the sale of the book go to a Guillain-Barré charity.