Unbidden Melody

By Mary Burchell

When Mary Barlow, a dedicated opera lover, takes a job in the office of the reknowned impresario Dermot Deane, little does she expect her work to become so personal.

Just weeks into her new job, she finds herself hosting Nicholas Brenner, a tenor she has long since admired.

Brenner, recently widowed, takes comfort in the simple but kindly company of Mary and their friendship quickly blossoms into something more.

Mary tells herself firmly that she could never really belong in Nicholas’s world and that to fall in love with him could only bring her heartbreak, particularly with the threatening mezzo Suzanne Thomas nearby.

They both have their insecurities to contend with, and nobody would ever claim it would be an easy romance, but how could Mary stop herself?

Mary Burchell was the pen name of Ida Cook (1904-1986). With her eldest sister Mary Louise Cook, she attended the Duchess’ School in Alnwick. Together, the sisters helped 29 Jews to escape from the Nazis, funded mainly by Ida’s writing. In 1965, the Cook sisters were honored as Righteous Gentiles by the Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Israel. Mary Burchell published more than 125 romance novels in total and helped found the Romantic Novelists’ Association, standing as its president from 1966 until her death