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A tale of two cities

2nd December 2006 by Helena Leave a Comment  

I am in the George V in Paris. Sadly I am not staying here with some multi-millionaire pop star lover, but interviewing people for Universal Television. I work as a headhunter when I’m not writing. The hotel is splendid, but I feel rather under-dressed. I can’t help thinking maybe a ball-gown would have been more appropriate. Perhaps a tiara to match. I have seen more chandeliers in one morning than I have during the rest of my life put together. The service is slick and fast. Almost as soon as I sat down for breakfast (a bargain at 40 euros for an orange juice and a fruit salad, why would you ever want to pay less?) a waitress produced a little stool for me to put my handbag on. Now I love my Tod’s handbag and I do take care of it but I’m not sure it will ever recover from its VIP treatment today.

Even outside the confines of the George V Paris seems a lot more civilised than London. The streets are emptier and the shops nicer. The only downside here is the amount of homeless people. I must have passed about five of them on my way to dinner last night. One young man looked up from his sleeping bag, smiled and said “Bonsoir Madame”. It seems even the down and outs are civilised here.


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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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