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World's oldest romantic novelist, who has worked under 10 different pseudonyms



Writer Ida Pollock was today hailed the world's oldest romantic novelist as it was revealed she is still producing steamy books at the age of 105.

Ida has written 123 novels during her prolific career - many of them tales of virgins, chaste kisses and dashing male heroes.

Ida has sold millions of books over nine decades with risque titles such as 'White Heat' and 'Interlude for Love'.




Ida Pollock, 105, has been hailed as the world's oldest romantic novelist

She has millions of fans but has largely avoided the limelight by writing under ten different pseudonyms.

Ida has written 70 books for Mills & Boon under the names Susan Barrie, Pamela Kent, Rose Burghley or Mary Whistler.

Despite turning 105 last week Ida is still writing and her latest novel The Runaway is due to be published shortly.


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She no longer sits at her typewriter but dictates to daughter Rosemary, 69, at their remote country home in Lanreath near Looe, Cornwall.

Ida said: 'A romance is never just a romance, there's adventure, mystery and movement.

'You need a grand, dramatic setting - the Swiss Alps were always an personal favourite of mine - and a chance meeting, on a train, a cruise, or perhaps the hero and heroine find themselves shipwrecked on a desert island.








Ida has millions of fans but has largely avoided the limelight by writing under ten different pseudonyms









She has written 70 books for Mills & Boon under the names Susan Parrie, Pamela Kent. Rose Burghley and Mary Whistler

'The men are normally rich, well-to-do - but never vulgar with their money. Young men lack the maturity to take control so an older man is essential to provide the reassurance the heroine's needs.

'There's always a fair amount of turbulence before he sweeps in to save the day. A happy ending is an absolute must.'

Born in Lewisham, south London, Ida began writing thrillers in her teens and finished her first, The Hills of Raven's Haunt, at 14.

After becoming a full-time writer in the 1930s, Ida turned to romance and penned a string of hits under the first of her ten pseudonyms, Joan Allen.

At her most prolific Ida produced 40 books in five years - all based around the timeless formula of naive young heroines spirited away from danger by rugged, older men.


Ida Pollock now dictates her novels to her daughter Rosemary, who is pictured here reading with her in 1967







Many of the dashing male characters are said to be based on Ida's late husband, Hugh Pollock (left) who was also married to Enid Blyton. Ida wrote 70 novels for Mills & Boon, and is pictured here with Alan Boon (right)


In 1956 alone Ida had eight romances published under five pen names - each around 70,000 words long and all finishing with a happy ending.

Ida has only released a handful of books under her own name and still publishes under the last of her alter-egos, Marguerite Bell.

A Distant Drum, her most recent novel, in which a young Fanny Templeton falls for the Marquis of Ordley after clashing at the battle of Waterloo, came out in 2005.

Ida's memoirs, Starlight, were published in 2009 and two more Regency romances, including her latest, The Runaway, are waiting to be published.

The Runaway is the story of a young woman who inherits a vast fortune and is forced to flee to escape several suitors.








The mother-of one, who is also a celebrated artist and illustrator, released up to eight novels in one year at her busiest time. Ida, pictured a home in Cornwall (left) and stepping out in the 1980s (right), says it takes her around six weeks to write a novel



Ida has sold millions of books over nine decades of writing

Ida, also a celebrated artist and illustrator, says it takes her about six weeks to write a novel.

Many of her swarthy male heroes bear more than a passing resemblance to her late husband Colonel Hugh Pollock, a decorated veteran and publisher.

Col Pollock was Winston Churchill's editor and was previously married to Enid Blyton. He died in 1971, aged 82.

Ida said: 'I think I was born to write. My mother would put a typewriter on the dining room table and say "there you go".

;My first story was published in the Christian Herald and they would pay me five guineas. I wrote my first novel when I was just 14.

'I was into mysteries and thrillers at the time but I eventually I drifted into romance because my mother would always ask me to write 'something pretty'.

'I've never got bored of it because its something I absolutely love. My books are full of hope and romance rather than sex.

'They are a form of escapism - you can escape the parts of the world that you don't like.'



Ida Pollock's writing desk in the early 1990s

Unmarried Rosemary, an editor and writer, has followed in her mum's footsteps and written a number of romantic novels herself.

She said: 'Pen names are very common in romance writing. Mum's publishers always insisted on them because readers associated different styles with different names.

'I don't think she's ever quite got the recognition she deserves. I've always loved her books and I would read them over and over, especially in my teens.

'I think her passion for writing is what has kept her going so long. She's remarkable - a national treasure'.
HERE'S SOME SHE WROTE EARLIER ... EXTRACTS FROM IDA'S NOVELS
Nightingale in the Sycamore (1957)

'He moved to meet her as she moved to meet him and caught her in his arms, kissing her wildly, like a man who was starving. Her hair, eyes, cheeks, lips - he smothered them with so many kisses that before long he paused to draw breath himself. She was completely breathless, but clung to him as if never willingly would she let him go again, and for the first time for weeks she knew what it was to feel glad that she had been born. . . .'

Bay of Moonlight (1968)

'Their first kiss was unlike anything Sarah had ever expected of a kiss. It left her feeling as if a thunderbolt had come hurtling out of the sky and passed so close that it scorched her. And when his violent mood changed to one of gentleness, a tenderness that melted her bones, she knew that this was the moment for which she had been destined ... It was the very purpose of her life ...'

A Distant Drum (2005)

'She had been in bed no more than five minutes when she heard the door handle begin to turn. The movement was gentle at first. "Open this door, or I'll break it down," the Marquis ordered. When there was no immediate response his fist began pounding against the woodwork, and Fanny jumped out of bed. "I don't," his lordship told her, "wish to rouse the whole house, but if it becomes necessary I shall not hesitate to do so. Turn the key in the lock, Fanny.'

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