A Distant Drum

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 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.