She also wrote columns for The Moscow News and Passport magazine, a Moscow monthly.

The 46-year old was sacked in 2009. Allen & Overy said that her novel was “unacceptable and totally at odds with the standrads of behaviour that we expect.”

A US judge has now given her the go-ahead to pursue legal action against the firm for unfair dismissal and claims she was sexually harassed. Ms Clark is seeking £22 million in damages.

Her web site has a note “The Author has been forbidden from publishing further chapters of Expat 
for the time being. She will resume if and when she is permitted to” and all the chapters from Expat have been blocked.