Ida Pollock dies aged 105

[pete9012S]

World's oldest erotic novelist dies aged 105 - and she was still writing racy bodice-rippers up until her death

Ida Pollock sold millions of books over 90 years including 70 Mills & Boons
The 105-year-old used ten different pseudonyms during her career
Best-selling book titles include White Heat and Interlude for Love
Towards end she dictated novels to 70-year-old daughter

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... death.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Many of the dashing male characters are said to be based on Ida's late husband, Hugh Pollock who was also married to Enid Blyton. Ida wrote 70 novels for Mills & Boon...

[Jack400]

Bodice rippers? - not sure this is E.B Site territory???

[sixret]

I read one of her novel during my romance novel phase 20 years ago. I think one of the Mills & Boons' title. Can't remember the title but I do remember the story is very innocent and sweet. A bit of adventure on the heroin part. Can't even remember the names of the characters.

She was a very mild-mannered lady. A bit shy and like to keep herself in private. She was a capable writer but not good at promoting her books or presenting herself in public. She loved to write but hated to promote her books. Very different with Enid Blyton. Ida Pollock at one end and Ida Pollock at the other end! Not a business type of lady.

Somehow Ida Pollock reminds me of Agatha Christie!

Sorry to know she had passed away.

[Kate Mary]

Journalists do come up with a load of tosh to make a story seem 'more interesting'. Ida Pollock was not an erotic novelist. When Ida was writing for Mills & Boon they used the slogan 'Pleasant books from Mills & Boon'. I also read one of her books back in the 1970s "The Devil's Daughter" an historical novel, I can't remember much about it, but it was under her Marguerite Bell pseudonym. Ida Pollock was a writer of light romantic fiction, her work certainly wasn't "Fifty Shades.."

[Anita Bensoussane]

Sorry to hear of the death of Ida Pollock. It's great that she kept writing right up to the end: "The world's oldest author, she has died aged 105 – just weeks before the publication of her 125th novel."

Journalists do come up a load of tosh to make a story seem 'more interesting'. Ida Pollock was not an erotic novelist.

Yes, I've noticed while reading newspapers that there's often a mismatch between the heading and the actual article. The heading talks of an "erotic novelist" writing "racy bodice-rippers" but the article quotes Ida as saying, "My books are full of hope and romance rather than sex."

I always wondered why Ida Pollock used so many pseudonyms. Her daughter Rosemary explains,"'Pen names are very common in romance writing. Mum's publishers always insisted on them because readers associated different styles with different names."

[Moonraker]

If you source information from the Daily Mail, you must expect "a load of tosh"! It is strange to have so many pen names - I can understand it if an author wanted to try something new, but didn't want it associated with his name, but to have so many pen names...

How incredible to be writing at 105! Imagine the extra books we would have to read had Enid lived in good health to that age.

[Julie2owlsdene]

What a great age. How remarkable to be writing for so so long. It was really her passion and kept this lady's mind alert. I have read Mills and Boon, Susan Barrie, but had no idea it was Ida Pollock.

[Domino]

There is really nothing unusual at all about writers in all genres using lots of pseudonyms.
The American crime writer, Erle Stanley Gardner (who created Perry Mason), also wrote as A. A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray and Robert Parr.
The British crime writer, John Creasey (who, using his real name, created The Toff, The Baron, Commander Gideon and Roger West), also used no fewer than 21 pseudonyms.
John Harris is best known as British sci-fi writer, John Wyndham (who wrote "Day of the Triffids", "The Midwich Cuckoos" and "Chocky" among others) also wrote as John Beynon and, as John Wyndham, wrote "The Outward Urge" in collaboration with Lewis Parkes, only that's him too!

Dave

[Anita Bensoussane]

...and, as John Wyndham, wrote "The Outward Urge" in collaboration with Lewis Parkes, only that's him too!

Now that is a rum do!

[Lucky Star]

Never read any of her books but what a wonderful, long and productive life she obviously had. RIP.

[Poppy]

Me neither but if I live to that age I will die happy!

RIP, Ida.

[Paul Austin]

Merged with existing thread.

sad to hear of her death. One of the last links back to Enid and Hugh.

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Lanreat ... z2mjp8wwsr" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[dsr]

...and, as John Wyndham, wrote "The Outward Urge" in collaboration with Lewis Parkes, only that's him too!

Now that is a rum do!

John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris

was his full name. He picked and chose which ones to use. The "collaboration" between John Wyndham and Lucas (not Lewis) Parkes was (so I'm told) because he was venturing into outer-space sci-fi, and didn't want his readers to expect the same sort of book as he was known for.

Incidentally, he lived in Petersfield. Next village to the Find-Outers, perhaps?

[dsr]

From Wikipedia, a much more reliable source:

"Ida Julia Pollock, née Crowe[1] (12 April 1908 – 3 December 2013),[2] was an English writer of several short-stories and over a hundred romance novels that were published under her married name, Ida Pollock, she has also written under a number of different pseudonyms: Joan M. Allen; Susan Barrie, Pamela Kent, Averil Ives, Anita Charles, Barbara Rowan, Jane Beaufort, Rose Burghley, Mary Whistler and Marguerite Bell. She has sold millions of copies over her 90-year career.[3] She has been referred to as "the world's oldest romantic novelist" who is still active. On the occasion of her 105th birthday, Pollock was appointed honorary vice-president of the Romantic Novelists' Association, having been one of its founding members.[4] She lived in Lanreath, Cornwall since 1986 and, as of 2013, continued to write.[5] At the time of her 105th birthday, she found an agent for her two unpublished Regency romances.[6]

Ida and her husband, Lt-Colonel Hugh Alexander Pollock, DSO (1888–1971), a veteran of war and Winston Churchill's collaborator and editor, had a daughter, Rosemary Pollock, who is also a romance writer. Ida's autobiography, "Starlight", published on 15 November 2009, tells the story of the start of her career, her marriage, and the relation of her husband with his ex-wife Enid Blyton.

She was also an oil painter, who was selected for inclusion in a national exhibition in 2004, at the age of 96.[7]"

There's a lot more, if you follow the link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Pollock" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Domino]

dsr corrected me: Lucas (not Lewis) Parkes

You're quite right and I knew that really. I just had a mind-slip! You're also right about the reason he gave, but the John Beynon stories had sometimes ventured into outer space. Wyndham's "Dumb Martian" is set on Mars.

Dave