Gurriers

A wild world that’s happening before your very eyes

June 1997, Sean Flanagan (Four Sean/ Shyboy) is a Dublin born motorbike enthusiast living and working as a computer technician in Ballinasloe Co. Galway.

His whole world falls apart when he loses his girlfriend, the love of his life.

Broken hearted, he leaves his job and moves back to Dublin, renting a room in the house of some newlywed friends while searching for another job.

Looking through the wanted ads he is surprised at how many ads there are for motorcycle couriers.

In a moment of madness he answers one of these and, almost reluctantly, ends up employed by Lightning Express.

The reader stays with him as he learns the ropes of this difficult and demanding profession while battling to deal with the loss of the love of his life.

After getting over his initial negative impressions of his new workmates, with their gruff manner and vulgar humour, he blends in with them and gradually discovers the strength of the bond between these men (and one woman) who could be killed at work any day.

He gets on particularly well with Vinno, the number one courier in Lightning, and when Vinno’s flat mate moves out in August Sean moves in.

He then enjoys a year of the wild life, learning all the time, working hard and driving fast to turn himself into a top earner while enjoying more of a social life than ever before. He also finds his feet emotionally and starts dating girls again, although still convinced that he will never find one as good as the one that he lost.

He gets himself a reputation among couriers after dating several receptionists.

It’s not all fun and games, though, and the reader shares his experiences of the negative elements involved in life at speed on two wheels in Dublin city; the physical exhaustion, the pressure, the stress, the weather, the breakdowns, Irish motorists, the Garda harassment and, worst of all-the crashes.

This is a work of fiction; all of the characters are fictitious except one.

However, all of the crashes that Sean has in the book are identical to crashes suffered by the author during his twelve years as a courier, facilitating accurate and moving descriptions of the true horror of crashing a motorbike.

The one character based on a real person is Sean himself, who is based on the author’s late brother-the original ‘Four Sean’.

This book is dedicated to his memory.



For more information, please contact:

Kevin Brennan