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 yearsincluding 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

By DEBORAH ARTHURS

PUBLISHED: 10:40, 6 December 2013 | UPDATED: 17:24, 6 December 2013

The world's oldest romantic novelist has died aged 105. 

Writer Ida Pollock, who worked under ten different pseudonyms during her 90-year career, passed away at a Cornwall nursing home on Tuesday where she was being treated for ill-health.

Her final two novels - numbers 124 and 125 - will be published in the New Year, marking the final chapter of her remarkable but largely unsung literary life

Ida, who has written 123 novels during her prolific career - many of them tales of virgins, chaste kisses and dashing male heroes, will have her final two novels published posthumously in the new year. 

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

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

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.

Up until her death, Ida still enjoyed writing erotic fiction. With her advancing years, Ida stopped using a typewriter, and instead dictated her racy tales to daughter Rosemary, 69, at their remote country home in Lanreath near Looe, Cornwall.

Earlier this year 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.

Prolific: Ida passion-fuelled tales have made hearts flutter for nine decades

Passion: Ida sold over a million books in her prolific career - over half through Mills & Boon - with titles such as White Heat and Interlude for Love

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 only released a handful of books under her own name and until this year published under name of 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 her most recent works are two more Regency romances, including her latest, The Runaway, which will be published in 2014.

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), said earlier this year that it takes her around six weeks to write a novel

Ida has sold millions of books over nine decades of writing

Ida, who was also a celebrated artist and illustrator, said earlier this year that it would take her about six weeks to write a novel.

Many of her swarthy male heroes bore 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 in an interview in April this year: '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 daughter Rosemary, an editor and writer, has followed in her mother'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'.

Ida's funeral will take place in the coming days in Lanreath, where Ida lived and where she will also be buried.

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 nothesitate to do so. Turn the key in the lock, Fanny.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2519299/Worlds-oldest-erotic-novelist-dies-aged-105--writing-racy-bodice-rippers-death.html#ixzz2mjKGUW3s
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook