helena frith powell

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Secret weapon that makes French women so alluring – they always dress from the inside out

10th May 2022

ON the whole, my English friends have a relationship with their underwear that is a little like the one they have with their dishwasher. It’s useful, not very pretty and lasts for decades. I remember one pal once joking that of course her underwear was …

It is supposed to be taboo but I think I look thin and fabulous, so what’s wrong with saying so? asks Helena Frith Powell

3rd February 2022

A tall, slim woman in her thirties wafts across the room – all thick glossy hair, blemish-free skin, clear eyes, full lips and an air of confidence normally reserved for French women from the bon quartier of Paris. Or at least this is how I believe I l …

As Holly Willoughby sparks anger by saying it’s ‘the best experience ever’… Is it insensitive to say you enjoy giving birth?

9th December 2021

By Helena Frith Powell  Sitting in a fibreglass tub at a birthing centre in Crowborough, East Sussex, 22 years ago, many things went through my mind as I worked to welcome my first child into the world. ‘When is this going to stop?’ being the most …

As Sarah Jessica Parker dons them in the revival of Sex And The City: Can anyone pull off dungarees in middle age?

11th November 2021

By Helena Frith Powell   While shopping with my 22-year-old daughter this August, I recalled how much I love dungarees. My daughter tried on a dark blue linen pair. They looked fabulous. She suggested that ‘we’ buy them and share them. ‘I’m t …

Britain’s strictest headteacher says discipline starts at home. So… Are parents to blame for pupils’ bad behaviour?

4th November 2021

By Helena Frith Powell   Should your child behave badly, it’s probably your fault. I write as a mother of two girls who used to dread parents’ evening — it was one protracted and painful apology. One of the problems is the misguided notion no …

As devilish moniker becomes more popular than ‘Nigel’…. Is naming your child Lucifer a hellish choice?

21st October 2021

By Helena Frith Powell When our son was born, I tried to get several ridiculous names past my husband: Raphael, Salvador, Angelo, even Gabriel. But not at any moment in my postpartum confusion did it occur to me to suggest Lucifer. I admit it has a cer …

Books

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles

2016
Gibson Square

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The Arnolfini Marriage

2016
Amazon Kindle

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The Ex Factor

2013
Gibson Square

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More, More France

2009
Gibson Square

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To Hell in High Heels

2009
Arrow Books

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Love in a Warm Climate

2009
Gibson Square

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The Viva Mayr Diet

2009
Harper Collins

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Ciao Bella

2006
Gibson Square

More
All You Need to be Impossibly French

2006
Penguin Books US

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Two Lipsticks and a Lover

2005
Arrow Books

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More France Please we’re British

2004
Gibson Square

More

About Helena Frith Powell

Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

© 2023 Helena Frith Powell
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