Books, babies and a divorce with a subsequent move back to Ireland followed, renting a small cottage in Clonakilty. A few months later, at the age of 25, she found herself not only with a three-book deal, but also pregnant with her first child, Harry.

The fact that she could use her imagination to take her out of the difficult ‘real’ world was both a revelation, and therapy of the best kind.Ī friend read the book – all 600 pages written in longhand over the months she’d been ill – and passed it to her author father, who passed it on to his literary agent. Whilst stuck in bed, plagued by fatigue, she decided to begin writing down a story that had been in her head for some time. She married an actor she met on a TV commercial and was then struck down with what has now been diagnosed as Epstein Barr virus. At the time, she’d suffered an injury to her knee, which put paid to any chance of her dream of being a professional ballerina, and, taking the difficult decision not to go to university, by 18 she was a very busy actress, with one of her roles being Tracy, Bomber’s Daughter, in the iconic ‘ Auf Wiedersehen Pet’. Lucinda got the part and after it was shown, found herself being offered other parts in professional productions on stage and screen.

At 16, a BBC director walked into a ballet class and picked out a couple of girls to audition for a six-part BBC drama series: ‘ The story of the Treasure Seekers’ by E Nesbitt.

The seven sisters series