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Sour Swedes

27th February 2010 by Helena 10 Comments  

I am the victim of a hate campaign from an otherwise peace-loving nation. It is not a nice experience. I am being inundated with emails, comments and facebook messages from extremely angry Swedes. The reason for their anger? An article I wrote for the Daily Mail in 2006 on the eve of Sweden’s world-cup football match with England where I was rude about my former home country.

These Swedes have clearly failed to understand the first rule of journalism: simplify and exaggerate. Of course I don’t find Sweden as boring as I wrote, if I did why on earth would I go back there for the summer whenever I can? Why do I go to IKEA every weekend? Why do I make the effort to speak Swedish to my children. But for the purposes of the piece, I wrote about the negative aspects of the country. And it is true that I would never consider living there again. In part because it is so boring, but mainly because it is too bloody cold.

I have been shocked by some of the emails. Offensive, abusive and, worst of all, terribly badly written. Most of them are rants about how horrible England is and how I belong there and never deserve to set foot in glorious Sweden again. And then more abuse about me. How I am certainly not Swedish as I am so unpatriotic not to mention boilingly ugly. And how COULD I be so disloyal?

I sent a few to my mother (who is 100 per cent Swedish). She told me to ignore it, or better still, write another article about them.

Anyway to any Swedes reading this whom I have inadvertently upset: I am sorry. I love many things about Sweden and I may have been a bit harsh in my article. But at least it got your patriotic juices flowing and gave you all something to complain about apart from taxes and the snow.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2010


Filed Under: Sweden, blog -->, writing Tagged With: swedes

10 thoughts on Sour Swedes

  • Ruth says:
    1st March 2010 at 2:50 pm

    Have they only just got round to reading a 2006 article? If so, it must be because they are all sitting at home trapped by the huge mountains of snow we have been hearing about, that prevent them from being good working Swedes.
    I had to laugh…

  • jacques says:
    1st March 2010 at 11:14 pm

    I thought I was a slow reader but those Swedes sure beat me.

  • Erika says:
    2nd March 2010 at 2:34 am

    Greetings from a sour swede :-), I am so sorry cuz, that our fellow country-men are such sour-pusses I think the weather plays a big part, and remember they have had the toughest winter this year in a 100 years, I am eternally grateful that I have got a chance to miss out on that one. One has to sympathize, now they are worried about ice falling of buildings, roofs caving in because of the weight of wet snow and astronomical heat-bills because of record-cold winter. Puss Erika

  • helena says:
    2nd March 2010 at 6:40 am

    Tack Erika – sill thing is I love many things about Sweden, but that does not make a good Daily Mail article. Hope all is going well in HK.
    Hej hej xxx

    PS Jacques – very funny!

  • Cate Jumeirah says:
    12th March 2010 at 2:03 am

    Must tell you something funny: when I went to leave a reply a minute ago on another post of yours, the Anti-spam word I was required to type was IKEA!!!!!!!

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  • Joakim says:
    5th January 2011 at 12:24 am

    I’ve read the article and I have to say that it is obvious that you lived in the northern part of Sweden. If you bothered to report the truth, you would tell them that the climate differences are large between the northern part (where you lived) and the southern part (where most people live). I usually have about 3 months of snow.

    It’s not really fair to judge Sweden based on the northern part of the country, being a swede, you should know that.

    And if you compare suicide-rates between sweden and other countries, they aren’t really that high. On average, 18.1 men and 8.3 women per 100 000 commit suicide in Sweden, while 17.7 men and 5.4 women of every 100 000 commit suicide in the UK

    That sweden have exceptionally high suicide-rates is just an old rumor without any real basis.

    People here try to be rational and do not believe in a magical man in the sky that will give them eternal life (greedy mortals) This is a propable reason why people are more depressed. Ignorance is bliss after all.

    You’ve got to expect some hate-mail when you spread disinformation just so you can write a good article. It’s common knowledge that Sweden is one of the least patriotic countries in the world. Yet you say we are fed propaganda promoting our country, and while you are doing this you are spreading disinformation, it seems very hypocritical.

    I’m not some grumpy old man that lives in a valley that the sun never reaches (where you seemed to live, lol). Be fair and honest and people will be fair and honest to you.

    There are probably some typos in there.

    Peace

  • Maria Grey says:
    19th February 2011 at 8:53 am

    Thanks Joakim, I’m not alone in thinking that we are in our rights to feel trampled on. But I always knew a journalist will walk over dead bodies to write something spectacular.

    mrs Maria Grey

  • Maria Grey says:
    20th February 2011 at 4:31 am

    Hi Jacques!
    We don’t usually read The Daily Mail in Sweden (smart ass).
    I’ve got no clue to why the article showed up here so many years after it was writen. I read it yesterday, because my daughter brought it home from english class. Don’t really know the purpose of why they were given it.

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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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