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A review in today’s Daily Mail

6th May 2011 by Helena 1 Comment  

Here it is, my first review in a national newspaper, under the heading Chick-Lit.

Some may not like being labelled a chick-lit author, but for me, it is actually a bit of a dream come true. A few days ago I got an email from someone who has known me since I was a teenager saying he had read the book and liked it, and was proud that I had achieved what I told him I wanted to do many years ago while sitting on a hill somewhere in Yorkshire. “You won’t remember it, but I do,” he wrote. “You told me you wanted to write romantic novels.”
I do remember, I also remember telling anyone who would listen that I wanted to be the new Jilly Cooper. There’s still a long way to go but this is a good start.

I’m especially thrilled as my agent sacked me for my fiction work, saying she didn’t think I would ever be good enough at it. To hear that character, setting and dialogue are all “spot on” from someone who reviews books for a living has meant a lot. I still like my agent, mind you, even though she clearly has no taste! And I do have her to thank for the plot idea.

I was so nervous when I saw it was in I made Rupert and Leo come and read it with me. Just as there is nothing as soul destroying as a bad review, there is nothing as uplifting as a good one. “I’m so proud of you mummy,” said Leo, bless him. But makes a change that it’s that way round. I am posting it here so that next time I get a nasty Amazon review I can just come back and read this one to console myself.

CHICK LIT

By Sara Lawrence

LOVE IN A WARM CLIMATE BY HELENA FRITH-POWELL (Gibson Square £7.99)

Love In A Warm Climate by Helena Frith Powell

Not long after she’s uprooted her family from England to France to start a new life making wine, married mother-of-three Sophie Reed is horrified to find a bra in her husband’s weekend bag.

It’s not his and it’s definitely not hers: it’s far too small and lacy for that.

Nope, the bra belongs to a French woman called Cecile, the new object of her betrothed’s affection, and Sophie must decide whether to abandon her vines and move back home or stay put and give her dreams of becoming a wine maker a chance.

In the ensuing struggle to make things work she embraces yoga, her inner French woman and two exciting new love interests. Thoughtful observations about the differences between the French and English approach to relationships pepper the narrative, providing an interesting backdrop to the various choices Sophie must make.

I loved all the yoga bits, too, and can personally vouch for Sophie’s praise regarding its toning abilities. Helpfully, there’s a handy guide at the end if you’re keen to try out a few sun salutations of your own.

Sophie is an engaging protagonist, the characterisation, dialogue and setting spot on and there are a lot of funny bits. I enjoyed it.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-1383866/CHICK-LIT.html#ixzz1LYoaR0bR


Filed Under: Books, blog -->, writing Tagged With: daily, review, today

One thought on A review in today's Daily Mail

  • Caroline says:
    6th May 2011 at 9:56 am

    Congratulations!! I thought it was a great book too, and now, finally, some justification to the existence of the Daily Mail…
    Xx Caroline

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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. Helena is also working on a thriller called Thin Ice that will be published in spring 2021 as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

Her latest non-fiction work Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles came out in hardback in 2016 and in paperback in April 2018.

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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