Mary Burchell

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Biography

Mary Burchell is the pseudonym of Ida Cook. She may have also written under the name James Keene. According to Joseph McAleer, who wrote Passion's Fortune: The Story of Mills & Boon, a history of Mills & Boon, Burchell "wrote over 130 novels for Mills & Boon in fifty years" (4). As an author for the Harlequin Romance imprint, she published 73 romance novels. She wrote seven romance novels for the Harlequin Presents imprint.

As described in her obituary, Ida and her sister worked as secretaries in the Civil Service and were keen opera-goers. As a result of contacts gained in the pursit of this interest, they became involved from 1934 in helping Jews escape from continental Europe to the UK. It was to fund these escapes that Ida turned to writing romances. After the war her writing helped her to assist refugees and young opera singers. More details can be found in Ida's autobiography, We Followed Our Stars, published in 1950.

She passed away in 1986.

Books

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