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A recipe for summer success

22nd July 2007 by Helena Leave a Comment  

The saviourMy laptop and I have been reunited and are on our way to Lake Garda where we are going to spend a week finishing To Hell in High Heels. I have left Rupert alone with five children. It was six, but one of them went back home today, so he really has nothing to complain about.

It’s a shame he can’t take them all the stay with my friends Norrie and Mary in the Savoie where I took Bea and Leo last week. They have the perfect recipe for a successful summer with children. I am going to reveal it to you.

One large wooden train decorated with flags
One donkey (possibly the most essential ingredient)
Three dogs
Lots of chickens (preferably two breeds)
Lots of ducks
One pond
Some sheep
Countless rabbits in hutches willing to be stroked and stared at
A box full of old toy cars
Fields all around with cows in them
A skinny cat that pops in from next door
Endless patience and interest in children.

It was the first time I had ever stayed anywhere and heard someone say to my children “when you wake up, don’t go bothering mum, come and see us and we’ll give you flying biscuits and milk”.

Are these people too good to be true? No, it gets better. “How can I help?” I asked one evening. “By lying on a sun-lounger,” came the reply. Then a glass of chilled white wine magically appeared. Bea must have seen the look on my face as she skipped past clutching some poor animal.

“Thank you Norrie,” she said. “You’ve saved my mummy’s life.”

For those of you who don’t have a Norrie or Mary, a friend of mine called Tina Richards (who is a holistic dermatologist) is running two workshops in London in August where you can learn all about the best anti-ageing strategies for your skin. You can check her out at www.holdbacktime.com or email team@holdbacktime.com.

I don’t think Rupert will like that idea much, but maybe when I get home I will send him to Norrie’s for a few days to recover. That way by September he may be speaking to me again.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Books, Children, Travel, blog --> Tagged With: recipe, success, summer

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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.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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