Mansfield business woman achieves book dream - and readers have given it five stars

Lucy, or Trinderella as she’s known to the many children who have read her book, dreamed of having a house full of animals and that’s exactly what she has done.

Her book, “I’ve Got 7 Dogs, 2 Cats and a Gorilla in My Back Garden”, is a collection of poems based around Lucy and her sister Katie’s pets.

The book follows Frank the Gorilla, Barney and Buddy the furry Krays, Cyril-No, Marvellous Mabel, Flo and Barbara the Bumblebums, Carol-looly the dancing bulldog and leaders of the pack Nelly and Pudding.

Lucy, who was born in Kirkby but now lives in Mansfield is the operations director for Dalmatian Systems, based in Ransom Wood.

She said : “My day job is running a local job board called Dalmatian, which helps people find their dream career. When you create a Dalmatian profile, as well as filling in all the stuff you’d normally have on a CV; your career history, qualifications, personal statement etc, it also asks you to list your goals. When I was filling in mine, I realised that ever since I’d been a child I’d had two real goals in life; 1) have a houseful of animals and 2) write a book. I’d achieved the first, but the second I hadn’t, so I set about writing about the things that inspire me the most my pets.

“I uploaded it to Amazon really just to see what would happen, but I’ve been blown away by the response, children all seem to identify with a different character, some like Cyril because he’s so naughty.”

The book is available to buy at Waterstones and Amazon where it has five stars.

One review said: "Lovely book, beautiful illustrations and excellent children’s poems. My niece and I particularly love pug life, we hope there will be a follow up book."

Another review said: "My Grandchildren love this book! Very funny poems that will touch the heart of anyone who loves animals. Bed time is a doddle now as the kids want to hear more about Cyril and his pals."