helena frith powell

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Author: Helena

My day as a Swiss scrub-nurse

21st February 2007

I know now why surgeons wear green. It’s to match their faces. I have just got back from “scrubbing in” as they call it in Grey’s Anatomy. I am at the La Prairie Clinic just outside Montreux researching my next book and having a perfect time. This plac …

Avoid the pain and take the train

19th February 2007

As far as I can make out, the only upside to flying is you might bump into Ralph Fiennes in the loo (Daily Mail article). I am at Heathrow, dishevelled and grumpy, having been put through something they call a “random personal search”. As I stood in th …

A tale of two cultures

17th February 2007

I am often accused of writing about stereotypes. Sometimes I get really nasty letters from grumpy readers who call me things they can’t spell like bigoted and offensive. But the fact is that people from different parts of the world are DIFFERENT. Howev …

The disappointed artist

16th February 2007

I am in Paris filming for Tonight with Trevor McDonald (ITV 8pm this evening if you’re bored). As it’s the school holidays I am with my daughter Bea (aged 6) and my stepdaughter Julia (aged 12). I decided that I would introduce them to the museums of P …

Parental truths number One

14th February 2007

This is a new series, and I’m sorry if I’m boring those of you without children but one day you may have them or you will at least know someone who does have them and so you can warn them. If you don’t I’m sure the same applies to pets. The other day i …

Dangerous or just desperate?

12th February 2007

This evening we were having a late dinner alone (the children had already eaten) when Olivia came rushing into the kitchen. “Please come downstairs and watch the film with us, it’s scary, there’s an evil man on the roof.” The film she was talking about …

Practical dressing

11th February 2007

We’ve had a lovely weekend. Yesterday wandering around IKEA (a rather strange Swedish habit) and Montpellier. Montpellier is a fantastic city; it always seems to be sunny and there is lots to do. The only glitch was trying to visit the newly re-vamped …

Where is my PR?

9th February 2007

I am just finishing off my truffle omelette (like you do) when I get a call from a charming young journalism student. As part of her final year project she is publishing a Swedish newspaper. She has read my articles in the Mail, knows I am half-Swedish …

France’s shame

8th February 2007

Yesterday I spent the day in Toulouse with Denise Epstein, the daughter of Irene Nemirovsky (see ‘We’ve never had it so good’ blog below). Ever since I heard about Irene being carted off Auschwitz in front of her two daughters and read her brilliant bo …

The greatest living Englishman

5th February 2007

I am at Stansted Airport, a strange place to be at 4.30 am but my flight leaves at 6 am. Yesterday I had one of those days that make me wonder why we ever left England. I went for a long walk first thing in the morning, watched the mist rise over the s …

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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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