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Dishy Dave

11th July 2008 by Helena 6 Comments  

We are in London, it’s great to be back. Yesterday I visited my favourite haunts; the Blink Bar at Harvey Nichols and HB Health where Botox Brenda worked her magic needle. On the way back to the hotel (Rupert has managed to get us into The Connaught, a more civilised place is hard to imagine, Leo has his own bed, dressing gown, slippers, teddy bear, London map etc) I was walking up Park Lane feeling jolly happy when I saw a familiar figure walking towards me.

Dave & Heathcliff

It was David Cameron, the leader of the opposition conservative party. I have always rather liked Dishy Dave as I call him because he’s, well, quite dishy. He is an Old Etonian which is a good start (in my experience they are usually charming, clever and amusing) and he just looks so good compared with the Prime Minister Gordon Brown. This week Brown compared himself with my all-time hero (only downside is he’s not an Old Etonian) Heathcliff. Well, I mean, really. He is about as reminiscent of Heathcliff as a sack of old potatoes, in fact less.

Dishy Dave looked so bright, handsome and fresh faced that I smiled broadly, praying silently that the blood left by Brenda’s needle had left my forehead. He smiled back and said “hello”. Rather annoyingly when I said hello back my new Tom Ford glasses decided to do that trick of moving up and down on my face so I must have looked like a mad woman. Still at least he’ll remember me.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2008


Filed Under: Britain, Politics, blog --> Tagged With: dishy

6 thoughts on Dishy Dave

  • GHCH says:
    11th July 2008 at 7:36 pm

    Dear Helena.
    How wonderful to be at The Connaught. The greatest place for “power breakfasts” the advertising industry has ever abused expense accounts in.

    Glad your Tom Ford glasses stayed in place. Poor Dishy Dave might have thought you were yet another victim London’s favourite sport; bloodletting. But then, I don’t expect you get many hoodies at Harvey Nicks.

    While our PM is in Hokkaido having a few suits made and, for some strange reason, reminding the world’s leaders that British families throw away half a million yogurts every year, his country, law enforcement, economy, education, health service, housing, immigration, transport etc. etc. is totally out of control.

    I will not set foot in the UK, let alone Harrods or Harvey Nicks, until the police issue me with a stab vest.

    Do The Connaught still have black pudding at breakfast? Simpson’s-in-the–Strand do.

    Graham

  • zed says:
    11th July 2008 at 7:53 pm

    I know several former Etonians and I have to agree, each one of them has so far been absolutely charming. I wouldn’t recognise David Cameron if he came up to shake hands with me (whatever for, I have no idea, especially when we are into the kissing business over here on the Continent – as you know) – and that’s my 2 cents worth, I’m afraid.

  • helena says:
    12th July 2008 at 9:31 pm

    Hello Graham
    Have not tried the breakfast as it probably costs around £50 but can confirm that the black pudding here in Sweden where we are now is amazing with a little lingonsylt…
    Hx

  • cj says:
    12th July 2008 at 11:43 pm

    I have returned from a 3 week holiday in France and I can not believe that you are moving to Abu Dhabi. I feel totally responsible for this occurrence-you are the third French blogger to leave that beautiful country once I start reading the blogs. It is incredible! Please do not go-I adore your French chat, and I promise to stop reading you if you change your mind.

  • helena says:
    13th July 2008 at 8:42 am

    Hello CJ
    Please don’t feel responsible, but there seems to be a pattern here…
    And do keep reading, Abu Dhabi will be fascinating and one day I will come back to France.
    Hx

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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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