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Something in common with Gore Vidal

6th December 2006 by Helena 1 Comment  

The other reason my amazon rating is doing so well this week is that on Sunday Ciao Bella was listed in the top five memoirs of the year in the Sunday Times. I had no idea this was going to happen and in fact was just complaining to my husband that I wasn’t included in any such lists when he said “But you’re here, look, Ciao Bella, number three, the reviewer calls it a delight”. “Yeah, right,” was my response. He has to show it to me before I believed him. And there she was, in glorious technicolour.

On the same page was Gore Vidal’s memoir (although he didn’t make it to the top 5). I met Gore Vidal that first summer in Italy I write about in Ciao Bella. He was an imposing and elegant figure, surrounded by books and servants. He showed little interest in me, preferring my handsome uncle, but he did take me into his study and hand me a copy of Myra Breckenridge. “This little lady caused quite a stir,” he told me.

Of course I hero-worshipped him. I never forgot his study overlooking the bay of Ravello with its vast desk and leather-bound books. To me, an aspiring writer aged 14, it seemed like heaven on earth. To be on the same page as him in a book selection is a huge honour. Although he might not feel the same!


Filed Under: blog --> Tagged With: common, something, vidal

One thought on Something in common with Gore Vidal

  • Lauren Poulin says:
    6th December 2006 at 8:54 pm

    Hello Helena – sorry the casual form of contact, but I wasn’t able to find your cordonées. I’m working on a television show that will air next year involving American women in Paris and we’d be interested in working with you. Could you please send me an email so that I can go into more detail?

    Many thanks.

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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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