Bea’s book cover and why you need a kitchen

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Several months ago, Bea drew this cover for my novel. She was clearly more optimistic than I was. The top figure is me and the other three the children in the book who are called Emily, Charlotte and Edward. Loosely based on three children you know well.

She is such a special little girl. Yesterday she did two drawings in her Arab class because her teacher was ill and they had no replacement. One of Olivia and the other of me; both so imaginative and well drawn.

Obviously they are all very special and they have been lovely over the past few days. Our tenant downstairs has moved out so we now have a big kitchen to cook, eat and chat in. For some reason this has made a huge difference to family life. The children seem miraculously calmer and I am certainly happier. It is so lovely to have a proper kitchen. I have even started cooking again. Monday lunch was like a ‘scene you seldom see’ cartoon from Private Eye. The children came home to find me cooking lunch in a pinafore.

This evening I inaugurate the kitchen with three of my lovely friends here. White wine and asparagus risotto and lots of chatting; what more can a girl ask for? I am starting to feel at home.

Even the children are getting used to life in Abu Dhabi. When Rupert asked Olivia if she preferred living here or in France yesterday she replied: “Here, it is closer to IKEA.” Now there’s a girl with her priorities sorted out. I prefer living here because of yoga, my friends, Nisar our driver, my Volvo, my job, all the activities the children can do 10 minutes from the house, the people in the office, Schamanee our maid, sunshine and our kitchen……but not in that order. Right now, the kitchen comes first.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2010


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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. She writes a beauty blog wwwbeautyorbeast.uk.

Her third novel, The Arnolfini Marriage, based on a romance that evolves around a van Eyck masterpiece came out in 2016. As well as writing regularly for newspapers and magazines, Helena is also working on a thriller called Welcome to Sweden that will be published in spring 2018. Her latest non-fiction work Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles came out in hardback in 2016 and came out in paperback in April 2018.

Helena was educated at Durham University and lived in the Languedoc region of France for eight years, where the family still have a home. She lives between there and London 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

Welcome to Sweden; Gibson Square summer 2018

 

© 2018 Helena Frith Powell
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