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The greatest living Englishman

5th February 2007 by Helena 1 Comment  

I am at Stansted Airport, a strange place to be at 4.30 am but my flight leaves at 6 am. Yesterday I had one of those days that make me wonder why we ever left England. I went for a long walk first thing in the morning, watched the mist rise over the sunny, frosty fields, ducks swim along the canal, geese fly overhead and dogs frolic in the freezing water.
Then I headed off to Cambridge where I had a meeting with an anti-ageing guru in a pub for my next book. In the background Wales were playing Ireland in the Six Nations. The professor drank John Smith bitter and everything was as English as you can get. After that I had a walk around the town and not for the first time in my life regretted not having been an undergraduate there. I stayed with some lovely friends who cooked me a lamb dinner and looked after me superbly. Then to bed and a slightly restless night in anticipation of the early start.

JonnyI spoke to my husband and told him I was worried we had made a bad decision moving to France. Maybe it was time to reconsider. “Don’t be deceived,” he said. “England is a mad and dangerous place, peopled by drunks and lunatics, except for the greatest living Englishman, J. Wilkinson Esq.”

He has a point. Jonny is without doubt the greatest living Englishman. But another even more pertinent point is that opposite my friend Carla’s house where I had the idyllic country walk is a house for sale. It is, in total, about the size of my bedroom at home and is on the market for £250,000. The same amount we paid for our vast farmhouse with land and swimming pool just over six years ago. Much as I love the Oxfordshire countryside, the thought of living in a shoe-box with all my children, the cat and the dog makes me happy to be going home to France.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Britain, France, Sport, blog --> Tagged With: englishman, greatest, living

One thought on The greatest living Englishman

  • Clare Mc says:
    6th February 2007 at 9:50 am

    Don’t waver over living in England v France!Sunday was one of those special golden days but they are a rarity!Have you forgotten the unbeautiful dank days of rain and general grizzliness?
    Much more heartening was taking a flight out of Stansted and away from the terrible winds and floods of last October to our house in Roussillon and being able to swim in the sea at Collioure, day after day!
    Roll on retirement though it’s a long way off!

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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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