Robert Mugabe's brutal regime in Zimbabwe will survive the recent bid to oust him in the presidential election, according to Oxford author Joy Maclean.

Mrs Maclean, 82, of Woodstock Road, north Oxford, has just had her third book published, entitled Invitation to Danger.

The historical novel is set in the time leading up to April 1980, when Mr Mugabe's current regime took over.

Mrs Maclean, who left Zimbabwe two years ago because she could no longer afford to live there, said she believed Mr Mugabe would hang on to power, despite the attempts of the Movement for Democratic Change to take control.

The MDC says it won the vote in the recent election, claims the government wants to rig the outcome, and now a general strike could take place.

Mrs Maclean said: "Mugabe is very successful at holding on to power and when he eventually goes people in his regime will carry on what he has been doing. I hope I am wrong but I fear I am not.

"I believe the MDC's election bid will fail - Mugabe's regime is not yet on the way out."

Mrs Maclean moved to Rhodesia with her family when she was 11 and following the death of her husband Roddy in 1996 she settled in Bulawayo.

When President Mugabe took control of Rhodesia in 1980 and the country was renamed Zimbabwe, the Macleans were forced to sell their farm for a small sum.

They then drove south in a caravan and heard accounts from black and white Rhodesians who had suffered during the 1970s terrorist war.

Mrs Maclean, a former senator for Ian Smith between 1977 and 1979, said: "All this material was hidden in the bottom of the caravan which was then taken to South Africa.

"The stories were gathered together for my second book, When The Going Was Rough, which was published under the pseudonym James MacBruce.

"My sister, Wendy Gilmour, lives in Oxford and when I had to leave Zimbabwe I decided to come here.

"It was heartbreaking to have to leave somewhere I had been living for so long and when I had to go, so many of my black friends were sobbing and crying."

Mrs Maclean said the aim of her latest book was to reveal the truth about how Rhodesia, the "jewel of Africa", collapsed and died through disastrous policy decisions made by British and American politicians.

She added: "It might bring comfort and hope to black and white Rhodesians who are still living, suffering, starving and dying in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe."

Invitation to Danger by Joy Maclean is published by Sable, price £17.