Mary Burchell

Ida Cook
Born 24 August 1904(1904-08-24)
Sunderland, England
Died 22 December 1986(1986-12-22) (aged 82)
Pen name Mary Burchell,
James Keene (with Will Cook)
Occupation Novelist
Nationality British
Period 1936-1985
Genres Romance
Notable work(s) The Warrender Saga
Relative(s) Mary Louise Cook (sister)

Ida Cook (b. 24 August 1904 in Sunderland, England - d. 22 December 1986) was a British campaigner for Jewish refugees and a novelist.

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.

Ida Cook wrote more than 125 romance novels as Mary Burchell for Mills & Boon (reedited by Harlequin). She helped to found and was for many years president of the Romantic Novelists' Association. She wrote her autobiography in 1950, We Followed Our Stars', reedited as Safe Passage, current in print.

Contents

Biography

Personal life

Ida Cook was born 24 August 1904 in Sunderland, England.[1] 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.[2]

During the 1930s, the sisters visited Germany using their true fanaticism for opera as a cover for their frequent travel. When returning to England, they smuggled in valuables, 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 honored as Righteous Gentiles 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 Governnment.[3]

Writing career

In 1936, Ida published her first romance novels as Mary Burchell. During her career she wrote more than 100 romances for Mills & Boon (reedited 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.

She also wrote some western novels as James Keene with the author William Everett Cook (aka Will Cook or Frank Peace).

In 1950, she wrote her autobiography, We Followed Our Stars', reedited as Safe Passage, currently in print.

Bibliography

[2]

As Mary Burchell

Single novels

The Warrender Saga

  1. A Song Begins, 1965 (Otello)
  2. The Broken Wing, 1966 (excerpts Così fan tutte, Semiramide, Norma (opera))
  3. When Love is Blind, 1967 (Beethoven's 3rd Concerto)
  4. The Curtain Rises, 1969 (The Magic Flute)
  5. Child of Music, 1971
  6. Music of the Heart, 1972
  7. Unbidden Melody, 1973 (Eugene Onegin)
  8. Song Cycle, 1974
  9. Remembered Serenade, 1975 (L'amore dei tre re)
  10. Elusive Harmony, 1976 (Carmen, Otello, André Chénier)
  11. Nightingales, 1980 (Mendolssohn's Elijah)
  12. Masquerade with Music, 1982 (I Pagliacci))
  13. On Wings of Song, 1985 (Alceste, Suor Angelica)

Omnibus collections

Anthologies in collaboration

As Ida Cook

Non-fiction

References and sources

  1. ^ "Rescue mission". The Telegraph. 14 July 2007. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3666564/Rescue-mission.html. 
  2. ^ a b Mary Burchell in Fantastic Fiction, http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/mary-burchell, retrieved 2008-09-08 
  3. ^ "Britons honoured for holocaust heroism". The Telegraph. 9 March 2010. Archived from the original on 9 March 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5o6rljVNN. Retrieved 9 March 2010.