Author picture

Susan Barrie (1908–2013)

Author of A Rose for Danger

135 Works 493 Members 6 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

Ida Pollock was born in London, England in 1908. She had her first stories published while she was in her teens, and went on to write numerous books under almost a dozen pseudonyms. She took a solo trip to Morocco while a teenager and worked in London during the Blitz. She took up writing intensely show more to support her family after her husband went bankrupt in 1950. During her lifetime, she wrote more than 120 books under Susan Barrie, Rose Burghley, Marguerite Bell and others. Her works included White Heat, The Devil's Daughter, The Sweet Surrender, and the memoir Starlight. She died on December 3, 2013 at the age of 105. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:

Ida Crowe Pollock writes as her married name Ida Pollock and under the pseudonyms Joan M. Allen, Susan Barrie, Pamela Kent, Averil Ives, Anita Charles, Barbara Rowan, Jane Beaufort, Rose Burghley, Mary Whistler and Marguerite Bell.

Series

Works by Susan Barrie

A Rose for Danger (1977) 17 copies
The Devil's Daughter (1978) — some editions — 16 copies
One Coin in the Fountain (1957) 16 copies
Moon over Africa (1955) 15 copies
Haven of the Heart (1956) 9 copies
Master of Hearts (1959) 9 copies
Bride in Waiting (1961) 8 copies
Meet Me in Istanbul (1958) 8 copies
White Rose of Love (1963) 8 copies
Pathway of Roses (1962) 8 copies
The Garden of Don José (1964) 8 copies
Sunshine Yellow (1961) 8 copies
Nile Dusk (1972) 7 copies
Moon at the Full (1961) 7 copies
Island in the Dawn (1958) 7 copies
Star Creek (1965) 7 copies
Flower for a Bride (1957) 6 copies
Enchanted Autumn (1959) 6 copies
Accidental Bride (1967) 6 copies
Flight to the Stars (1959) 6 copies
Escape to Happiness (1960) 6 copies
Bride of Alaine (1966) 5 copies
The House of the Laird (1956) 5 copies
Man of Destiny (1965) 5 copies
Love Is for Ever (1957) 5 copies
The Keys of the Castle (1959) 5 copies
The Black Benedicts (1956) 5 copies
Mountain of Dreams (1958) 5 copies
Desert Gold (1968) 5 copies
Man from the Sea (1968) 5 copies
Beloved Enemies (1967) 5 copies
The Young Nightingales (1967) 5 copies
Carpet of Dreams (1955) 5 copies
Master of Melincourt (1966) 5 copies
The Quiet Heart (1966) 5 copies
So Dear to My Heart (1956) 5 copies
The Stars of San Cecilio (1958) 5 copies
Desert Doorway (1956) 4 copies
Highland Mist (1962) 4 copies
The Sweet Surrender (1959) 4 copies
Wild Sonata (1968) 4 copies
Return to Tremarth (1969) 4 copies
Mistress of Brown Furrows (1952) 4 copies
Cuckoo in the Night (1966) 4 copies
Air Ticket (1957) 4 copies
The King of the Castle (1963) 3 copies
The Afterglow (1966) 3 copies
Mountain Magic (1964) 3 copies
Marry a Stranger (1954) 3 copies
Royal Purple (1962) 3 copies
Autumn Wedding (1962) 3 copies
And Be Thy Love (1958) 3 copies
The Wings of the Morning (1960) 3 copies
The Bay of Moonlight (1968) 3 copies
Rose in the Bud (1966) 3 copies
White heat (1966) 3 copies
The Gates of Dawn (1954) 3 copies
Enemy Lover (1964) 3 copies
The Gardenia Tree (1965) 3 copies
The Chateau of Fire (1961) 2 copies
The Man Who Came Back (1967) 2 copies
Sweet Barbary (1957) 2 copies
City of Palms (1957) 2 copies
Heart Specialist (1958) 2 copies
The Dawning Splendour (1963) 2 copies
Starlight: A Memoir (2009) 2 copies
The Marriage Wheel (1968) 2 copies
House of Sand (1986) 2 copies
No Just Cause (1965) 2 copies
Love in High Places (1960) 2 copies
Sea Change (2002) 2 copies
A Distant Drum (2005) 2 copies
Love in the afternoon (1959) 2 copies
Bride by Arrangement (1960) 2 copies
The Secret Heart (1956) 2 copies
A Moment in Paris (1961) 2 copies
A Quality of Magic (1966) 2 copies
Castle Thunderbird (1965) 2 copies
Sir Faintheart (2015) 2 copies
A Case of Heart Trouble (1963) 2 copies
Four Roads to Windrush (1957) 2 copies
Country Air (1970) 1 copy
The Gentle Masquerade (1964) 1 copy
Igor and Mom (1990) 1 copy
Her Chinese Captor (1935) 1 copy
Lady in Danger (1967) 1 copy
Summer Conspiracy (1969) 1 copy
The Uneasy Alliance (1965) 1 copy
A Quest for Lovers (1963) 1 copy
The Quiet Heart 51128 (1967) 1 copy
Interlude in Snow (1964) 1 copy
Night of Stars (1975) 1 copy
Bride by Auction (1989) 1 copy
Folly of the Heart (1967) 1 copy
My Heart at Your Feet (1957) 1 copy
Interlude for Love (1958) 1 copy
Journey in the Dark (1962) 1 copy
Indian Love (1935) 1 copy

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Legal name
Crowe Pollock, Ida
Other names
Allen, Joan M.
Barrie, Susan
Kent, Pamela
Ives, Averil
Charles, Anita
Rowan, Barbara (show all 11)
Beauford, Jane
Burghley, Rose
Whistler, Mary
Pollock, Ida
Bell, Margerite
Birthdate
1908-04-12
Date of death
2013-12-03
Gender
female
Nationality
UK
Birthplace
Lewisham, Kent, England, UK
Places of residence
Malta
Cornwall, England, UK
Occupations
romance novelist
short story writer
historical novelist
autobiographer
suspense author
painter
Relationships
Pollock, Rosemary (daughter)
Pollock, Hugh, (spouse)
Short biography
Susan Barrie was one of the many pen names of Ida Pollock, née Crowe, who was born in Lewisham in southeast London, England. Her parents’ marriage fell apart shortly after she was born, and her mother worked as a housekeeper for relatives. Ida began writing at a young age and at 14, published her first novella, a thriller called The Towers of Ravenshaunt. By age 20, she had published several stories in major magazines and in book form. She became a full-time writer in the 1930s. Over the nine decades of her career, she wrote prolifically and sold millions of copies of romance novels with titles such as Indian Love (1935), The Sweet Surrender (1959) and Master of Melincourt (1966). Being in print with many titles of different genres at different publishers, she used multiple pseudonyms; these included Joan M. Allen, Susan Barrie, Pamela Kent, Averil Ives, Anita Charles, Barbara Rowan, Jane Beaufort, Rose Burghley, Mary Whistler and Marguerite Bell. As a young woman, she had a long-term affair with Lt-Col. Hugh Pollock, a writer and editor who was 20 years her senior and married to Enid Blyton. They were finally married in 1943 and had a daughter the following year, Rosemary Pollock, who also became a romance writer. They lived in Ireland, France, Italy, Malta and Switzerland. In 1964, she published her first historical novel, The Gentle Masquerade, under her married name Ida Pollock. She also wrote suspense novels and an autobiography, Starlight (2009). In 1960, she was a founding member of the Romantic Novelists' Association. In her 90s, she became a painter and built scale miniatures of Georgian and Tudor buildings.
Disambiguation notice
Ida Crowe Pollock writes as her married name Ida Pollock and under the pseudonyms Joan M. Allen, Susan Barrie, Pamela Kent, Averil Ives, Anita Charles, Barbara Rowan, Jane Beaufort, Rose Burghley, Mary Whistler and Marguerite Bell.

Members

Reviews

Written under the pen name of Pamela Kent (and that's how it is listed in the Guardian's list).

I would have adored this book in my adolescence when I was devouring romance novels! I still found it a pleasant read - nice clean romance. However, the plot was predictable (maybe because of all that teenage reading) and the secondary characters quite two dimensional.

Read as a Kindle book (from KU)
 
Flagged
leslie.98 | 1 other review | Jun 27, 2023 |
What is this Mills and Boon romance doing on the Guardian 1000 list? I had to find out.

This is a fifties period piece. The blonde heroine is girlish and naive. She wears simple dresses in pastel colours, and little white hats. She doesn't drink. The wicked widow has dark hair, wears purple, is sophisticated, and drinks cocktails. She is so evil that her husband, the best shot in South Africa, committed suicide by lion. She tries to separate our heroine and our hero, a dark, sardonic, sophisticated, older man. Sophistication, an asset in a man, is a disaster in a woman!

I have no idea how this book made it onto the Guardian 1000 list. I quite enjoyed it, but it is tripe.
… (more)
½
 
Flagged
pamelad | 1 other review | Apr 14, 2016 |
 
Flagged
Condorena | Apr 2, 2013 |
Freshly out of school, 18-year-old Carol Inglis was Timothy Carrington's unofficial ward. For that reason, Timothy thought he can better support Carol if they were to marry instead.

I'm not a fan of May and December stories but that wasn't the problem I had with this book. No, I had issue with the way Carol was always described as being young and youthful, very shy, naive and child-like. She wore a lot of virginal white and was coddled and indulged. I kept seeing a 10-year-old in my mind and thinking how creepy an almost 40-year-old was her love interest! Carol was a Mary Sue-like character because she was always described as pretty and that everyone loved her (save for two jealous women in Timothy's life). She, and all the characters for the matter, lacked any personality.

Actually, truth be told, I kept imagining Carol a well cared-for, prized, life-sized doll because she was often being carried around and handled with gentle fingers. This of course goes back to the days when females were thought of as beautiful objects of limited use. This was after all an older book. (But it still made my eyes roll to no end.)

I got this book because I love the cover. Incidentally, this cover does not match the description of Carol, whom was fair-haired. I always thought the covers on the older Harlequin romances actually matched with the stories, but I guess I was wrong. Ha!
… (more)
 
Flagged
starlightgenie | Jul 2, 2011 |

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Statistics

Works
135
Members
493
Popularity
#50,127
Rating
3.0
Reviews
6
ISBNs
234
Languages
2
Favorited
1

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