"There is no greater agony than bearing an
untold story inside
Maya Angelou
"Sharing our stories is one of the most valuable ways to add to the world library of human experience. We leave a trail for others to follow, and hopefully, learn from. We tell of our struggles and valiant quests to overcome them and point out pitfalls along the way.
We tell the world of our pain, our sorrows, our bravery, and our joy at reaching the promised land.
​
We teach and instruct others who are struggling to find their way through hardships. We encourage, laugh together and cry together. We expose secrets, free ourselves, and shine a light on things others would have us keep hidden.
​
Books and the stories contained within them are like lighthouses, casting luminous rays across blackened skies and roiling seas. I pray my book is such a lighthouse for those navigating the aftermath of childhood storms."
One More Breath ~ A struggle for self and Soul
An Autobiography
Lynette delivers a compelling, multifaceted narrative that goes well beyond the recounting of her childhood traumas. Disturbed by something haunting, wailing from the very depths of her soul, she journeys through the dark tunnels of her hidden inner world to unearth its source. Lynette’s expedition becomes a spiritual quest and a rite of passage.
​
Poetic and well written, Lynette’s poignant story, laced with wry humor and personal observances, takes us from her earliest memories of being battered and abused as a child, through the wreckage of her broken adult life, to ultimately show that deliverance is in our own hands.
​
We alone are responsible for wrestling free from the grip of those things that have wounded our hearts and ensnared our minds, regardless of how complete our degradation, or how that came to be. However, the voyage is never taken alone. Grace and the unseen hand of ‘Life’ are always at our side.
​
​One More Breath has the power to offer hope and healing. It is both spiritual assistance and a template for change. What lies hurt and hidden deep within, exiled and unloved, can be brought back from the shadowlands.​
Restoration of wholeness is possible. Forgiveness the final path to freedom.
​
Praise for One More Breath
Reader Review
"One More Breath, A Struggle for Self and Soul" by Lynette Chennell is a book I read from start to finish in pretty much one session. I loved it! Compelling and complex, this personal journey is a poignant memoir that delivers great wit, dry humor and leaves your heart battered. I cried, I laughed and I cheered. There is such true depth in what Lynette journeys through to be then shown she is the one who is ultimately in charge of her own life. As she writes you know she is not on her own. Her sovereignty stands beside her, holding her up, assisting her as she navigates her own healing process. Her shadow work is endless it seems and that is why her light, now shines so brightly. Her self-compassion has won her, her path to personal freedom.
~ Mina xx
Letter from a reader
Dear Lynette, your book arrived this afternoon. I don't know why but something urged me to just drop everything and dive in. My word. I’m almost at page 50 and I’m speechless. Just when I think I can’t take any more along comes more. I don’t think I’ve ever been as moved by another person’s writing in my life. Occasionally an extraordinarily poetic line will just wrap itself around my heart with an attachment to you and your experiences that feels visceral. There are also some striking circumstantial similarities to how we both grew up. I’m just speechless. I know - because I’ve scanned the list of chapters - that redemption and forgiveness are coming in the pages ahead. Part of me can’t wait to get to that part but I’m still agonising my way through the early part - to date I’ve just passed your 19th birthday and my heart has been wrung out to dry a dozen times or more already.
Massive hugs to you.
~ Siobhán Barter xxx
Reader Review
Never ever have I felt the want to express my thoughts about a book I have read. Until I read ‘One More Breath’. A struggle for self and soul. Sadly, so often we hear of the terrible injustices served up to young innocents who subconsciously plan for nothing, apart from normal human expectations. Unconditional love, attention, trust, and nurturing. The normal things all babies are born to intrinsically expect and deserve. Very few of these basic human requirements were offered to Lynnette Chennell.
The account of her years- beginning from a young child, to where she landed in 2019 when she published this book, is the journey of her soul and the struggle to find it and reclaim it. Writing a sad and often torturous, account of her beginnings and the impact it had on her later years; left me with an overwhelming range of emotions. Outrage comes to mind. It surprised me, how absorbed and completely invested I was in finding out the end of the story. How she ended up. Was she ok now.
Through her writing, her horror and experiences were transmitted to me. I ‘felt’ her feelings- and her sense of hopelessness and devastation in learning the truth of where and what she was born into. How does any infant understand let alone cope with such abandonment of love and support?
It is a wonderfully written and inspiring book to read. I read it in four hours taking only a few short breaks. It’s compelling. It’s raw, it’s heartbreaking, and it is real.
The audience she could reach with this honest and highly personal account of her life would surely help and inspire others who follow somewhat, on a similar path. Those who struggle and carry every day, deeply entrenched childhood trauma.
I applaud her and praise her for shining a light into her life and the ways she found to navigate her way through and out the other end.
Thank you for your authenticity.
~ Stephanie Gale
Reader Review
One More Breath - A struggle for self and soul, is an autobiography that takes you along for every emotion. Every tragic hurt, every raw and explosive angry outburst, every desperate attempt to just keep it all together when in fact, everything seems set for destruction right from the start.
Lynette's story of physical, sexual, emotional, and spiritual abuse is, I'm very sad to say, a story many of us can relate to on many levels. What sets this story apart is Lynette's raw honesty in sharing with us her relentless want and need to trust others. Trusting others is something that comes naturally for Lynette. It's in her nature to trust so to be able to go through this journey, this discovery that not everyone we come across has our safety and well-being in mind will break your own heart whilst reading. Lynette takes us chronologically through the breakdowns, the wearing down of her self-belief and ability to trust her own instincts. Lynette takes the reader through the expectations that some children have to burden to be a good little girl. She shows us the heartbreaking realisation of what it can sometimes mean to become a woman, a wife, a mother, a victim and finally free of any expectations that anyone has ever put upon her. It's a wonderful thing to be able to read about another human being who once thought it impossible to ever embrace her true self again; showing us all that the essence of who we are, our human spirit, the very purpose of why we're all here is ultimately and undeniably the one thing that despite any injustices we may face, is what will make us a stronger and more peaceful collective. Thank you Lynette Chennell for this incredibly brave and often hard-to-read autobiography.
~ Sammi Atfield