Lucinda E. Clarke books in order

It is nearly time for the Grand Royal Annual Ball and Fairyland is in chaos. Cinderella has had enough of Prince Charming and is desperate to get a divorce – as long as she can continue to enjoy her current standard of living.

Harold and Snow White quarrel over his philandering and her refusal to go where every woman has gone before. Augustus also has a problem, his wife is a raving nymphomaniac and with 28 children, he can’t meet the household bills. There is a dearth of suitable princes for the available spinster princesses and the annual festivities are held for that very reason. 

There is friction between Ermintrude the Fairy godmother by Royal Appointment and Featherduster who favors the proletariat. Into all this turmoil, the Green Giant arrives, sent by the ‘Party’ to ferment an uprising among the downtrodden peasants who appear quite happy as they are and not interested in anything he has to say – unless he can provide them with TV sets.

Leah was unemployed, broke, and desperate.

A few years earlier, a fatal car crash took the lives of Leah’s beloved husband and their two babies, leaving her disabled. Life looked bleak.

Then she met Mason.

He was charming, charismatic, persuasive, and a successful businessman, well respected in the community. His teenage daughter did nothing to welcome Leah into the family, but life is never perfect.

And the nightmares began the day the dog died…

Two years into her second marriage, Leah Brand’s world is turned upside down. Inanimate objects move, her clothes are left out for the rubbish collection, there are unexplained noises and hauntings.

Everyone accuses Leah of losing her mind.

Soon she begins to doubt herself and she starts to spiral down into a world of insanity. Is she going mad, or is someone out to destroy her? And if so, why?

Andrea was Leah’s best friend. A strange attraction between a wild, confident, fun-loving, widow, and a quiet, insecure housewife. But Leah’s gentle and loving nature hide the depths of an underlying iron-hard mental strength.

After surviving her vicious husband’s terrifying games and the mental asylum he committed her to, Leah’s only desire now is for a life of peace with her new partner, and her best friend, Andrea. What could possibly go wrong?

Plenty, as it turns out. With her husband now on the run from a mob hitman, and his family each hiding their own secrets, they are prepared to go to any lengths to finish what they started three years ago. Will they succeed this time? Leah knew the only person she could rely on was Andrea.

Deidre is determined to protect her adopted niece Leah, but despite fleeing the country, the menacing threats continue. They believe their enemies can’t reach them now, so who is behind the life-threatening attacks? The incidents escalate, each more horrifying than the last.

How can they fight back when they don’t know who the enemy is and they have no idea what they want? A fast-moving, page-turning, psychological thriller that will leave you breathless, as once again, Leah is the victim of a cruel conspiracy that lurks in the shadows. A gripping thriller for fans of Louise Jensen, Avery Bishop and Claire McGowan.

Belinda Brand becomes an overnight sensation when Hollywood offers to make a film of her runaway bestseller. A confident, modern woman, she has the world at her feet – and a secret she is convinced no one will ever discover.

Leah, her gentle and long-suffering stepmother will guess, but she would never betray her, or would she? When menacing notes appear after the Awards ceremony in London and then follow her across the Atlantic, Belinda realizes someone is threatening to expose her.

As she struggles to stay calm, her best friend disappears, Belinda’s celebrity life turns into a nightmare and there is no one she can trust. If the Brand family thought they could lead a quiet, normal life, they were wrong. Danger continues to lurk in the shadows.

When Amie waves goodbye to Samantha as she leaves on her European journey she is quite content to stay at home while her elder sister sets off to explore the world – well maybe a little bit of it to start with. Amie has no great desire to travel, she enjoys her life in Castle Bridge.

Samantha is the adventurous one and she can’t wait to spread her wings: meet new people and experience different cultures. Two weeks on the Costa Blanca is only the start of her planned epic journey with her long-suffering boyfriend, or possibly fiancé – depending on Sam’s mood – trailing along behind.

But, if it can go wrong, it goes wrong – even before Sam and Gerry have left the airport – and their first trip abroad as a couple turns into a nightmare as one disaster follows another.

When Ben’s family move from the rural kraal to a modern house in the capital city, he finds himself caught between the old and the new. His eyes are opened to a world he could never have imagined; where men walk on the moon and satellites provide high speed internet.

As Ben enters his teenage years, it is time for him to become a man. Age-old customs must be followed not, as he hoped in a modern city hospital, but back in the village where his family have lived for generations. Excited yet fearful; is he the only one who notices the rust on the surgeon’s knife?

Amie was just an average girl, living in the town where she grew up, close to her friends and family. She was happily married to her high school sweetheart and she had her future all planned out. Until the day her husband announced he was being sent to live and work in an African country she’d never heard of.

When she came to the notice of a Colonel in the Government, it made life very complicated, and from there, things started to escalate from bad to worse. There was something she had never been told and it put her life in danger. If Amie could have seen that one day she would be totally lost, fighting for her life, and enduring untold horrors, she would never have stepped foot on that plane.

Amie wants nothing more than a quiet life after her last terrifying fight for survival, but once again she faces danger. She learns that Angelina, the child she fostered before the civil war broke out, may still be alive.

What she doesn’t know is this will bring her face to face with a terrorist organization with international connections. This time she is not alone, but of the two friends, one old and the other new, who can she trust? One of them is not telling the truth. Which one will betray her?

Amie returns to her beloved Africa and a settled life, but her enemies have neither forgiven nor forgotten her. They are determined to take their revenge and reclaim their honor.

The horrific events of one night change everything as Amie loses her husband, her home, her friends and even her name. She never expected to stand and watch as they lowered her body into the grave.

She no longer exists and those who are now controlling her make it clear: she either obeys or she dies.

They told Amie it was a simple look, listen, and report back mission, but from the beginning, everything went wrong. She is stalked across borders, the aid workers act suspiciously, she’s assaulted, and abandoned in a rural African hut miles from anywhere.

What has happened to her partner Simon and can she trust the charismatic Frenchman who befriends her? The discovery of an ancient tribal tradition and a group of young children to rescue, test her skills to the limit.

For the first time, she is prepared to kill to protect the innocent caught up in an international sex trade with an extra horrifying twist. Cut for Life highlights the world’s problem with FGM and hopefully will raise awareness of this terrible practice.

Amie, the world's most reluctant spy is back.

Amie is assured that her next assignment will be easy and very safe.

How could a safari camp in the African bush along with the President and international representatives from several countries possibly be dangerous?

She has no choice but to do as they say.

Simon has flown back to England for a brief meeting and then disappears. Amie has no idea where he is.

But not everyone is pleased about the rare and precious minerals discovered in the north and they are prepared to do whatever it takes to disrupt the safari and stop the auction even if it causes an international incident and even if people are killed.

Amie now has two lives to save and faces a bleak future on her own.

Growing up in a mentally abusive household was never fun, but then I married a Walter Mitty character who took me to Africa and into some ridiculous and dangerous situations! To survive, I worked 24/7. I taught children, ran the worst riding school in the world, bred pet animals, announced on radio, lived on a boat and brought up two children of my own.

On the lighter side, I hosted a royal occasion, met heads of state, interviewed Nelson Mandela and shook hands with Prince Charles. Much to my amazement, I ‘fell’ into the media, first writing for radio and television, then directing, and eventually I ran my own video production company and won several awards.

However, throughout all this, my mother lurked in the background, always there to remind me what a failure I was. The only thing that saved me from admittance to the nearest mental home was an unfailing sense of humor.

How do you become a writer and follow the dream you had since early childhood, when you need to earn a living? Well, it helps if you are fired from your teaching job, and then crash out at an audition for the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Lucinda ‘fell’ into writing quite by chance, moving from radio to television, to eventually running her own video production company. Many of her adventures while filming are hilarious, and this book lifts the lid on what happens on the other side of the camera and shows the truth of working in the world of television and the media. 

If you read this book you will never believe anything you see on television ever again. It’s not as glamorous as people think, and Lucinda spent more time in toilets than she did in banqueting halls.

The second book in this series traces Lucinda’s filming career up to her retirement and tells more unbelievable tales from behind the camera lens, as Lucinda and her ‘rainbow crew’ travel across South Africa.

They meet Mandela, endure a terrifying helicopter ride, and empathize with the forlorn Bushmen. There are riots, an abandoned patient, a ram with an identity crisis, and a house that disappears. 

Their stories are both hilarious and heartbreaking, revealing the truth about what goes on behind the scenes in the media. This book proves that propaganda is alive and well on television screens across the world.

Who would open and run a riding school when I’m scared of horses, can’t ride, don’t know what to feed then or how to care for them? Yes, that would be me. Add to that I had no insurance, no capital and two of the four horses were not fit for the knacker’s yard. But that’s exactly what I did with hilarious results.