helena frith powell

  • Lifestyle
  • Women
  • Beauty
  • France
  • Contact

Plus ca change

13th July 2011 by Helena 2 Comments  

One of the most trite people I follow on Twitter is Sarah, the Duchess of York. She always comes out with some cliche you’ve heard a million times before, but yesterday, she was spot on.

“The only constant thing is change,” she tweeted. Seconds before I read her tweet I had been to a meeting where we were informed that we would all be moving desks and the department would be restructured. I move from THE ROYAL DESK as I like to call it, to a much smaller one. My magazine team will be spread out across the rest of the rest of the newsroom in an effort to streamline operations.

“Embrace change” is the slogan I am trying my best to drum into my mind. And everyone else’s. It is funny how much people hate change, and how they especially hate to be moved. Obviously I am furious because I lose THE ROYAL DESK but even people moving to the same size desk they have now are upset. The blue packing boxes are being ignored and faces are set in determination and many have put in fevered requests to be allowed to keep their keyboards.

I have been trying to work out why we hate change so much. I guess it is so much worse if it comes as a total surprise, as this did. I remember Chantal our childminder in France who could handle anything, as long as it was “prevu”. If it was “pas prevu” there was no way she was going to do it. So forget getting invited out to dinner on the spur of the moment or even the day before. But we could go away for weeks at a time, as long as we gave her plenty of notice.

I suppose change also means going from the known, the comfort zone, the secure to the unknown and the insecure. Or from THE ROYAL DESK to a small desk.

Maybe downsizing will suit me? Perhaps I will find the simplicity of a small desk with less drawers in which to keep my hand creams and porridge oats and less wall space to adorn with images of my children, Rafa and Torres a relief, rather like someone moving from a chaotic vast mansion to a neat little apartment. But I doubt it.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2011


Filed Under: blog --> Tagged With: change

2 thoughts on Plus ca change

  • jose says:
    13th July 2011 at 5:28 am

    Yes, you’re so right – change is so unsettling, but I read that the key to survival is the ability to adapt constantly to even the smallest changes and that women are better in the flexibility stakes – could that be why we live longer?

  • Helen says:
    30th July 2011 at 3:01 pm

    I think that’s a very good point Jose.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

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. Helena is working on a thriller called Thin Ice that will be published in 2021 as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

Her latest non-fiction work Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles came out in hardback in 2016 and in paperback in April 2018.

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

 

 

© 2022 Helena Frith Powell
Website by Web Inclusion
/* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: content-template-for-layout-for-header-and-footer-layout - start */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ .helenaHero .mainTitle h1{ font-size:3em; -webkit-transition: all 0.8s; -moz-transition: all 0.8s; -ms-transition: all 0.8s; -o-transition: all 0.8s; transition: all 0.8s; margin-top:-100%; padding-top:100px; padding-bottom:50px; margin:0; } .scrolled .helenaHero .mainTitle h1{ font-size:1.2em; padding-top:30px; padding-bottom:20px; } /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: content-template-for-layout-for-header-and-footer-layout - end */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17hfp_about - start */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ .HFPA-section{ width:100%; background:#eee; } .HFPA-Image{ background-position:center right; background-repeat:no-repeat; height:276px; width:100%; -webkit-filter: grayscale(100%); /* Safari 6.0 - 9.0 */ filter: grayscale(100%); } .HFPA-Text{ padding:20px 10px; } /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17hfp_about - end */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17footer - start */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ .footIt{ background:#222; padding:20px 10px; } /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17footer - end */ /* ----------------------------------------- */