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An unimpressive Prince

26th March 2007 by Helena 1 Comment  

Kiss meApart from the pasta, the most exciting thing to happen to me in Monaco was almost being run over by Prince Albert. I was wandering up a little road towards the palace when a policeman shot round the corner on a motorbike and motioned to me to get out of the way. I just managed to squeeze myself up against a wall before a vast black Mercedes whizzed by carrying the prince himself.

I immediately called my husband to tell him. “It’s not so surprising that you should see him there, he does live there after all,” was his response. “It would be more surprising if I were to see him in Pezenas market, where I’m headed now.”

When I got home I decided to try my prince story out on a less cynical, and captive, audience. Bea and her best friend Manon were in the back of the car as we drove home after an excellent (and smoke-free) dinner at IKEA.

“Girls, guess what?” I said. “When I was in Monaco, I saw a REAL LIVE PRINCE.” They could hardly fail to be impressed by this news, I waited for the hsyterical reaction and questions such as was he wearing a crown, did he kiss you, was he on a horse etc etc.

“Yeah, whatever,” said Bea, not even bothering to look up from the game they were playing. “We prefer princesses.”

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Children, Men, blog --> Tagged With: prince, unimpressive

One thought on An unimpressive Prince

  • parisbreakfasts says:
    28th March 2007 at 6:55 am

    Ah, stories of the rich and famous..
    Yesterday when I went to get a haircut in Paris, there was Andree Putman paying her bill and her credit card was not working!
    She looked every bit as chic and parfait and tall as she does in all the magazines.
    But still her card was not working (for 20 minutes!)
    They are just like us.
    Well sometimes anyway…

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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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