Mountain Magic

by Ida Pollock, Susan Barrie (Pseudonym)

Toni Darcy as stranded, penniless and alone, when Kurt Antoine offered her a job in his new hotel in the Austrian Tyrol.

It seemed at first the answer to her problems — until she realized that she had incurred the enmity of the hotel's beautiful manageress.

Genres: Harlequin Romance

157 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Ida Crowe was born on 12 April 1908 in Lewisham, Kent, England, UK, the daughter of a single mother and a unknown father, who rumoured to be a Russian duke, who her mother met at a ball in Greenwich. Ida narrowly escaped being smothered with a pillow by the nurse who attended her birth. As a teenager, she travelled alone to Morocco, after suffering a mental breakdown. From the age of ten, she knew she wanted to write. She began to write while still at school encouraged by her mother, with whom she lived in Hastings.

Writing fiction since her very early teens, setting her first publication, Palanquins and coloured lanterns, in 1920's Shanghai and she had several stories in major magazines and short novels in print. When at 20, she visited the George Newnes's office in London, to sold her her first full-length manuscript. Three months later, she discovered that they had lost her manuscript. After they found it, she returned to London to met one of its editors, the 39 year old Hugh Alexander Pollock (1888–1971), a distinguished veteran of World War I. Hugh had been married since 1924 to his second wife, the popular children's writer Enid Blyton, with whom he had two daughters Gillian Mary (1931–2007) and Imogen Mary (born 1935). Hugh was divorced from his first wife, Marion Atkinson, with whom he had two sons; William Cecil Alexander (1914–1916) and Edward Alistair (1915–1969). George Newnes bougth her manuscript, and contract her to wrote two other novels.

In the dark days at the beginning of World War II, Ida worked at hostel for girls in London through the Blitz. Hugh, who had left publishing to join the army, was Commandant of a school for Home Guard officers, and his second marriage was in difficulties. They has a chance encounter after a long time, and feeling Ida should be out of London, he offered her a post as civilian secretary at the army training centre in the Surrey Hills. She accepted, and as the months went by their relationship intensified. During a bungled firearms training session Hugh was hit by shrapnel on a firing range, and Ida had contact with Enid, but she declined go to visit her husband in Dorking, because she was so busy and hated the hospitals. On May 1942, during a visit to her mother's home in Hastings, a bomb destroyed the house. Ida escaped unhurt, but her mother was in hospital for two weeks. Hugh, who was sent overseas, paid for Ida to stay in smart London hotel Claridges, and decided to divorce his wife, who in 1941 met Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters and had begun a relationship with him. To get a quick divorce, Hugh blamed himself for adultery at divorce petition. On 26 October 1943, Ida married with Hught at London's Guildhall register office, six days after Enid's marriage with Darrell Waters. In 1944, they had a daughter Rosemary Pollock, also a romance writer. Enid changed the name of their daughters, and Hugh did not see them again, although Enid had promised access as part of his taking the blame for the divorce.

After the World War II, George Newnes, Hugh's old firm, decided not to work with him anymore. They also represented Enid Blyton and were not willing to let her go. After this the marriage experienced financial problems and, in 1950, Hugh had to declare bankruptcy while he struggled with alcoholism. A determined Ida plunged back into her literary work, and decided to write popular contemporary romances, she sold her first novel to Mills & Boon in 1952. Being in print with several major international publishers at the same time, she decided to use multiple pseudonyms. At that time, the pseudonyms were registered by the publishers and not by the writers. In the 1950s she wrote as Susan Barrie, Pamela Kent, Rose Burghley, and Mary Whistler to Mills & Boon, as Averil Ives and Barbara Rowan to Ward Lock, as Anita Charles to Wright & Brown, as Jane Beaufort to Collins. With the production of ten or twelve titles in every year, it was not long before she becoming hugely popular r

Reviews

[Margo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one is a fun read even though it is not what I would describe as a truly healthy romance. The the H hires the shy and reserved h for a job at his hotel but leaves the assignment of the job up to the OW. The OW promptly has her scrubbing floors, delivering things to amorous guests' rooms, and eventually dressing up like a barmaid and working at the hotel's pub. She even has the h living in an attic!

So you are probably thinking, "Hey it must have been one heck of a scene when the H found out what the OW was doing." Well it wasn't actually the H who found out, it was the OM, and it took a combination of the OM and the h's estranged uncle to deliver the verbal beat-down that the H deserved so richly.

I came to the conclusion that there was something wrong with the H and that he was limited in his ability to be sensitive to others. Fortunately for the h, she has something about her that makes all men other than the H feel protective of her. She's gonna need those guys if she stays married to the H.

[Anuradha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very ordinary fare. The premise is decent and quite time tested.

Hero is a billionaire hotelier and the girl is a shy and oppressed little thing. He feels instantly protective, and never expresses it for ages.

With an OW and OM thrown in, its easy to fill pages. But to hold the reader's interest in the leads is not easy work. Mostly, olden day romances were good at this. Simple tales told with a lot of heart.

But this one doesn't have much of either head or heart. The girl, a mouse really, works for the hero in his hotel, after the hero rescues her from a bad employer. In his hotel, the manager, is another bad employer. So nothing changes really.

There is no build up of a relationship between the 2, they just suddenly decide. Oh, I have cared for this person all along !! Weird really.

Anyway, lack lustre characters, dull story. Barely managed one read. 2 stars.

[Lynn Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Published in UK Mills and Boon in 1964. This edition 1972 Harlequin publication.
Not totally convinced about the relationship as it appeared to suddenly happen towards the end after disappearing part way through!