Ida Cook (24 August 1904 – 22 December 1986) was a British campaigner for Jewish refugees and, as Mary Burchell, a romance novelist. Ida Cook and her sister 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 honoured as Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem in Israel. In 2010 she was recognised as a British Hero of the Holocaust with her sister. Between 1936 and 1985, under the pen name Mary Burchell, Ida Cook wrote 112 romance novels for Mills & Boon — many of which were later republished by Harlequin. She helped to found the Romantic Novelists' Association, serving as its second president from 1966 to 1986.

Biography

Personal life

Ida Cook was born on 24 August 1904 in Sunderland, County Durham, England. With her elder sister Louise Cook (1901–1991), she attended The Duchess's School in Alnwick and later took civil service jobs in London. Both sisters developed a passionate interest in opera. During the 1930s, as part of the work they undertook to help Jews to escape from the Nazi regime, the sisters visited Germany on multiple occasions, using their enthusiasm for opera as a cover for their frequent travel, and smuggled Jewish people's jewellery and other valuables across the German border, thereby enabling Jews fleeing Germany to satisfy British financial security requirements for immigration. They worked with Austrian conductor Clemens Krauss and his wife, the Romanian soprano Viorica Ursuleac, who had initially told them of the persecution of the Jews. The sisters enabled the escape of 29 Jews and others needing to flee from Nazi Germany, funded mainly by Ida's writing. The Cooks gave them an address to come to, a flat in Dolphin Square in Pimlico. Among those recued were Else Mayer-Lismann and her family. In 1965 the Cook sisters were honoured as Righteous among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Israel. In 2010 the British Government named each of them a British Hero of the Holocaust.

Writing career

In 1936 Ida published her first romance novels as Mary Burchell. During her career she wrote 112 romances for Mills & Boon, later re-edited by Harlequin Books, including the famous Warrender Saga, a series about the opera and concert-hall world. She incorporated many famous operas (Otello, Eugene Onegin and Carmen, among others) into the Warrender series plots. She wrote in the Romantic Novelists' Association's newsletter: "I concede that a bad romantic novel is embarrassing and indefensible. So is a bad so-called realistic novel. And it is usually pretentious into the bargain, which is insufferable. But a good romantic novel is a heart-warming thing, which strikes a responsive chord in those who are happy and offers a certain lifting of the spirits to those who are not." In 1950 she published her autobiography, We Followed Our Stars. In 2008 it was re-issued, re-edited and expanded as Safe Passage. Cook was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1956 (its first series) when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre. She ghost-wrote Tito Gobbi's autobiography, My Life (1979).

Legacy

In January 2017, Sunderland Council erected a blue plaque commemorating the sisters on the site of their childhood home at 37 Croft Avenue, Sunderland. The same year, producer Donald Rosenfeld discussed plans to make a film of the sisters' humanitarian work and his efforts to unseal CIA files on their activities. The film was to be based on the research by Vincent. In 2022, investigative journalist Isabel Vincent published Overture of Hope about the Cook Sisters. An episode of the documentary series Mysteries at the Museum features the sisters' activities in rescuing Jews from Nazi Germany. In 2024, the Cook sisters and their work rescuing German Jews were the focus of an episode of History's Secret Heroes on BBC Radio 4.

As Mary Burchell

Single novels

The Warrender Saga

Omnibus collections

Anthologies in collaboration

As Ida Cook

Non-fiction

References and sources