Pen name Mary Burchell Genre Romance Died December 22, 1986 Period 1936-1985 Role Novelist | Nationality British Name Mary Burchell Occupation Novelist Notable works The Warrender Saga | |
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Born 24 August 1904
Sunderland, England ( 1904-08-24 ) Books Under the Stars of Paris, Except My Love, The Broken Wing, A Song Begins, Child of music | ||
Ida Cook (24 August 1904 – 22 December 1986) was a British campaigner for Jewish refugees and a romance novelist as Mary Burchell.
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Ida Cook and her sister Mary Louise Cook (1901–1991) rescued Jews from the Nazis during the 1930s. The sisters helped 29 people escape, funded mainly by Ida's writing. In 1965, the Cook sisters were honored as Righteous Gentiles by the Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Israel.
Between 1936 and 1985, Ida Cook wrote 112 romance novels as Mary Burchell for Mills & Boon (many of which were later republished by Harlequin). She helped to found, and from 1966 to 1986 was the second president of, the Romantic Novelists' Association. In 1950 she wrote her autobiography, We Followed Our Stars, later re-edited and expanded as Safe Passage, which is currently in print.
Personal life
Ida Cook was born on 24 August 1904 in Sunderland, County Durham, England. With her elder sister Mary Louise Cook (1901–1991), she attended the Duchess' School in Alnwick and later took civil service jobs in London. Ida with her sister, Louise, developed a passionate interest in opera.
During the 1930s, as part of the work they undertook to help Jews to escape from the Nazi regime, the sisters visited Germany on multiple occasions, using their true fanaticism for opera as a cover for their frequent travel. When returning to England, they smuggled valuables (such as jewellery), which allowed Jews fleeing Germany to satisfy the British financial security requirements for immigration. They worked with Austrian conductor Clemens Krauss and his wife, the soprano Viorica Ursuleac, who initially had told them of the persecution of the Jews. The sisters helped 29 people escape, funded mainly by Ida's writing. In 1965, the Cook sisters were honoured as Righteous among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Israel. In 2010 they were posthumously named a British Hero of the Holocaust by the British Government.
Writing career
In 1936, Ida published her first romance novels as Mary Burchell. During her career she wrote 112 romances for Mills & Boon (re-edited by Harlequin Books), including the famous The Warrender Saga, a series about the opera and concert hall world. She incorporated many famous operas (Otello, Eugene Onegin and Carmen, among others) into these Warrender series plots.
In 1950, she wrote her autobiography, We Followed Our Stars, later re-edited and expanded as Safe Passage, which is currently in print.
She ghost-wrote Tito Gobbi's autobiography, My Life.
She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1956 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre.