Romance novelist Ida Pollock dies at 105 in England

LONDON (AP) - Ida Pollock, believed to be the world's oldest romantic novelist, has died at the age of 105.

Daughter Rosemary Pollock said the centenarian author of more than 120 books died on Dec 3 at a nursing home near her house in Lanreath, south-west England.

Born in London in 1908 and raised by a single mother, Pollock had her first stories published while she was in her teens, and went on to write scores of novels under almost a dozen pseudonyms. Her output included some 70 "bodice-rippers" for romance publisher Mills & Boon, the British arm of Harlequin Enterprises.

Her 124th and 125th novels, romances set in the Regency period, are due for publication next year.

A funeral is being planned for next week in Lanreath.

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