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Something missing….

3rd October 2007 by Helena 2 Comments  

Bea is ill. She has a “baddie tummy” and I mean really bad. Poor little love has been writhing around in agony, her temperature soaring. But the most astounding effect of her illness has been on those around her.

Her best friend and soul-mate Manon spent all day at school weeping. When told by the others at school that there are other children to play with she responded; “There’s only Bea.” Leo spent most of his time by her bedside yesterday, watching her anxiously. Even Olivia, who is normally arguing with her, is upset. At dinner last night she threw down her knife and fork and announced that it just wasn’t any fun without Bea.

I agree it’s no fun. I miss her constant singing and chatting, her weird hairstyles and cool outfits for school. The doctor said she should be better within 48 hours. That was 24 hours ago, although it feels like a week.

Meanwhile a story from Italy about three feuding nuns caught my attention. Relations between the three remaining sisters of Santa Clara in Bari deteriorated so badly that one of them ended up hospital with scratches to her face. The Vatican wants to close the convent. Two of them have left but the third one, a Sister Liliana, refuses to abandon her home of 44 years. She has written to the Pope telling him she will only leave when God decides it is time for her to go. Negotiations are proving difficult as she is sticking to her vow of silence.

If only one of the nuns had fallen ill with a baddie tummy they might all still be friends.

Tomorrow I drive two hours for an eight-minute appearance on Radio Four’s Woman’s Hour. Is it worth it? I think so. I am on air with a woman who has written a book called Dutch women don’t get depressed. Apparently they’re happy because they don’t have much sex, wear dreadful clothes and are under no pressure to be good hostesses. ‘What about Dutch men?’ I want to ask the author. One can only assume they are suicidal.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Children, Italy, Women, blog --> Tagged With: missing, something

2 thoughts on Something missing....

  • Laura says:
    3rd October 2007 at 10:10 pm

    That’s going to be an interesting debate!

    What about a Dutch woman who has been living in the UK for 16 years? Is it something in the genetic make-up of the Dutch or dictated by it’s environment?

    The practical benefits of being a Dutchie have changed – yes, I do dress up and can play the hostess – and my ways are more English nowadays. But somehow I still seem happier than my English friends.

    I’m definitely going to listen.

  • Leanne MacMillan says:
    4th October 2007 at 3:18 pm

    Please give Bea a “hug and kiss” from Canada….Cheers, Leanne

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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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