Before becoming an author, Clarke wrote radio comedy sketches and stories for US cartoonist Gilbert Shelton. With A Year in the Merde, Clarke is arguably one of the earliest self-publishing success stories--it was discovered by French newspapers and garnered enough interest that he could sell the novel to international publishers. It has since been published in over 20 languages. He has now written several Merde books, all starring Paul West, an Englishman surviving in France. Clarke has also written non-fiction, including 1000 Years of Annoying the French, a bestselling look at the history between Great Britain and France, and Paris Revealed, a book detailing the hidden secrets of Paris that Clarke has learned from ten-plus years living there.