This time he cruised two hundred miles of the River Shannon, from Killaloe to Lough Key, calling at all the little country harbours along the way. Again we meet a variety of strange and unusual characters: a tramp of the old school, a theologically-minded pick-pocket, a literary courtesan, a bizarre corpse-washer with an eye for the artistic, a specialist in the romantic moods of frogs, snails and hedgehogs. In The Secret Places of the Shannon, with a sensitive and rare touch, he describes those precious moments of time when earth and sky and water are blended into flashes of unforgettable loveliness. He sees the pain and the sorrow of human suffering as well as rollicking laughter of human joy. Dominating all of this is the majestic Shannon with a thousand years of history around every bend.

John M. Feehan was born in County Tipperary. After a number of years in the regular army he resigned to devote his life to business and literature. He founded the successful Cork-based publishing house Mercier Press in 1944. He is the author of many other books including My Village My World, The Secret Places of the Burren and The Secret Places of the West Cork Coast. He died in 1991.