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A tale of Mrs T

10th April 2013 by Helena 5 Comments  

I once met Mrs Thatcher at the British embassy in Paris. The year was 1989 and I was staying with my friend Iona, the daughter of the then ambassador. He is a lovely man called Sir Ewen Fergusson, who was and remains my idea of a perfect ambassador, tall and elegant with excellent taste in everything, who once played rugby for Scotland.
We were in what was known in the embassy as the family sitting room one evening when she knocked on the door. Iona’s mother barely looked up from her embroidery as Mrs T asked for permission to join us, as the room was so much cosier, she told us, than than the state rooms she had been allocated. Her private secretary was with her.
“I have a first edition of Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities,” she told us. “I wanted to write a dedication to Mitterand, but don’t want to devalue the book.”
The ambassador smiled. “Prime Minister, I hardly think you would be devaluing the book by writing in it.”
Mrs Thatcher (as she was then) shook off her shoes and curled up on the sofa. I remember thinking “this old lady is in charge of everything” and being slightly amazed at how much she reminded me of my granny.
“Right, well then, what should I write?” She looked around the room. “You!” she said, pointing at me. “You’re studying English, what should I say?”
I stuttered something about ‘on this auspicious occasion of the bicentenary of the French Revolution’. I also remember thinking that it as a pretty classic book to be giving a French president but didn’t feel I should mention that.
“Good, good,” she said. “Now I need my pen.” She turned to her secretary. “Where’s my pen?”
“Prime Minister, I think it’s upstairs.”
“Right, well go and get it please.”
The secretary walked towards the door. Bear in mind please that ‘upstairs’ at the embassy was a walk about a mile long. When she got to the door the secretary turned to Mrs Thatcher.
“While I’m up there, Prime Minister, is there anything else you need?”
“I don’t think so,” replied Mrs T. “And if there is, we’ll just send you up again.”
I thought she was formidable, just fascinating and would have loved to stay chatting all evening. Iona, however, was used to state visits wanted to go clubbing, so we did.
But the most memorable thing about the week was without doubt Mrs T curled up on the sofa. May she rest in peace and I hope all the left-wing lunatics calm down soon, they really are beyond dull. Plus ca change as we would have said at the embassy….

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2013


Filed Under: France, Life, Women, blog -->

5 thoughts on A tale of Mrs T

  • MWJ says:
    10th April 2013 at 9:12 am

    The weirdest coincidence, Helena. The only time I ever saw Margaret Thatcher at fairly close distance was in Paris the winter of 1989 / 90 (I can’t remember the exact date but it was surely the same time). She came out of the Elysee and walked down the street to the British Embassy on a Saturday night. We were living in the 8th on the other side of Boulevard Malesherbes at the time and had been out walking the dog when we saw the (small) crowd, asked a policeman what was happening and he said Margaret Thatcher was about to leave a dinner at the Palace. So we hung around on the Faubourg, loitering in the doorway of a dress shop on a cold, damp night if I remember rightly. We couldn’t believe our eyes when she just strolled down the street on the opposite side of the road accompanied by very discreet security. An absolutely remarkable woman. I would like to think she’d be highly amused at the reappearance of all the usual old suspects on the loony left being given some airtime again. Aren’t they a pitiful sight?

  • Helena says:
    10th April 2013 at 11:13 am

    Amazing coincidence. Yes I’m sure she’s laughing at them from beyond, they can complain as much as they like but she ended her days at the Ritz!

  • Jennifer says:
    16th April 2013 at 10:46 am

    I love this story.

  • Nina says:
    23rd April 2013 at 11:30 pm

    Hi,

    I just ordered your new book, The Ex-Factor. Can´t wait.

    Nina

  • Helena says:
    24th April 2013 at 1:06 am

    Thanks so much Nina, I hope you like it x

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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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