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The lovely Jeremy….

16th September 2011 by Helena 2 Comments  

I was at university with Will Carling, who used to be the captain of the English rugby team, back in the days when it was all amateur and there really wasn’t any money involved, just occasional glory.

Will went out with Iona, my best friend at uni, and we watched his first game for England together. After the game he called us to tell us how amazing the atmosphere was. Iona knew all about rugby, her father had played for Scotland. I knew nothing, but was utterly mesmerised by one of the players; a certain Jeremy Guscott, who ran up and down the pitch with the grace and speed of a leopard. I kept asking Will to introduce me, but he never did. Last week, I finally met him.

He is here in the UAE for nine weeks working for the TV channel OSN, commentating on the Rugby World Cup which is happening in New Zealand at the moment.

We met at a hotel in Dubai,  I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Twenty years is a long time. OK, he has changed (haven’t we all?) but he is still lovely, if a little more portly than he was in the days he played for England. We talked about rugby, football, golf (his passion nowadays, he plays off 10), kids, tennis, face cream (classic quote, he told me uses cream because “they say black doesn’t crack, but it does), motivation, books and England’s chances in the World Cup.

It was a lovely chat, he is still very cute, but not as devastatingly gorgeous as he used to be. I guess being an ageing sports star must be a bit like being an ageing film star; you look back on pictures of yourself in your prime a la Sunset Boulevard and think about how gorgeous you once were and how you will never be that sexy again. Which is why being a writer is such a good idea. Because, all being well, your books only get better.

Having said all that, I still wouldn’t kick Jeremy off the sofa….

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2011


Filed Under: Sport, Style, blog --> Tagged With: jeremy, lovely

2 thoughts on The lovely Jeremy....

  • Kate says:
    18th September 2011 at 11:47 pm

    Saw the lovely Jeremy on TV last night. He still looks pretty good – I think the greying hair is rather attractive. Maybe I’m showing my age?

  • Helena says:
    19th September 2011 at 3:22 am

    I thought he was lovely, greying or not! x

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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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