Ida Pollock

Who was Ida Pollock?

Ida Julia Pollock, née Crowe, was a British writer of several short-stories and 125 romance novels that were published under her married name, Ida Pollock, and 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. She has been referred to as the "world's oldest novelist" who was still active at 105 and continued writing until her death. She found an agent for her two unpublished Regency romances at 105. 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.

Ida and her husband, Lt-Colonel Hugh Alexander Pollock, DSO, 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.