Rosemary Pollock

Rosemary Pollock was born on 1944 in England, UK, daugther of Ida Pollock (1908-2013), writer and painter, and Hugh Alexander Pollock (1888–1971), editor, veteran of World War I and assistant to Winston Churchill. Her father had been married three times. In 1913, he married Marion Atkinson, with whom he had two sons, William Cecil Alexander (1914–1916) and Edward Alistair (1915–1969); they divorced after World War I. In 1924, he married the children's writer Enid Blyton (1897–1968), with whom he had two daughters, Gillian Mary (1931–2007) and Imogen Mary (b. 1935), they divorced in 1943, to get a quick divorce, Hugh blamed himself for adultery at divorce petition. Immediately Enyd married her lover, Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters, and six days after Hugh married Ida Crowe, and the the following year they had her only child. Enid changed the name of their daughters and Hugh did not see them again. After Enid's death Rosemary was put in touch with her half-sisters.

After 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, her husband had to declare bankruptcy while he struggled with alcoholism and her mother decided to write popular contemporary romances. During her childhood the family travelled widely and lived in many parts of England, and her asthma brought they to Cornwall. The family also lived in Ireland, France, Italy, Malta and Switzerland, where they successfully obtained a lasting cure for her debilitating condition. Her father died on 8 November 1971 in Malta, where he is buried in the British military cemetery. After her father's death, her mother returned with her to England and they lived for several years in Wiltshire, before moving to Lanreath in 1986. Rosemary worked as editor, and also wrote nine romance novels from 1969 to 1981. During years she helped her mother with some of her many projects. In 2009, her mother published her autobiography, Starlight. Retired, she helped her mother to transcribe her latest romance novels, which her mother became the world's oldest novelist who was still active. Her mother died at 105, on 3 December 2013 in Lanreath.