helena frith powell

  • Lifestyle
  • Women
  • Beauty
  • France
  • Contact

The power of the pen

4th August 2008 by Helena 7 Comments  

Alexander SolzhenitzynAlexander Solzhenitzyn, the Russian Nobel laureate and former prisoner of Stalin’s gulags, has died in Moscow aged 89. I can’t pretend to have read any of his books, but I have at least heard of them and I am aware of what a huge impact he made exposing the cruelty of the gulag system despite harassment from the KGB and then eventually twenty years in exile.

Sarkozy (keen to get on on the act) has called him “an heir to Dostoyevsky”. The letters on the BBC website all talk about how he changed people’s lives, what an inspiration he was and one even says that A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich showed him the power of literature to change the world. Solzhi, as he was known by friends in his adopted America, would probably agree. One amazing fact I read this morning is that in the gulag they were allowed neither pens nor paper, so he memorised everything and kept it in his head until he was free to write it all down.

I think every writer secretly dreams about changing the world, either with a huge scoop or with a great book. But maybe at slightly different levels and obviously linked to your circumstances. Were I living in Afghanistan, for example, I like to think I would write a book that would help the plight of women there. But as I’m not I am quite happy helping women in my world lose weight, discover matching underwear and feel better about themselves. Possibly not as ground-breaking or as important as Solzhi’s epic work, but it suits me.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2008


Filed Under: Books, Human Rights, Life, blog -->, writing Tagged With: power

7 thoughts on The power of the pen

  • GHCH says:
    4th August 2008 at 9:15 am

    Sergei Sergeyevich climbed the familiar damp stairs of his tenement project. The reek of boiled cabbage made his rheumy eyes run even more. He was still suffering from that dose of ‘flu he caught seven years ago. His threadbare grey herringbone overcoat did little to keep out the cold and his hat had been stolen months before by the children of the secret policeman on the ninth floor.

    Sergei pushed the broken door open with his scuffed cardboard shoe, sloped in to the dark, two-roomed apartment and collapsed on to a wonky kitchen chair. He awoke to see his wife Olga posing lewdly in the bedroom doorway. She wiped her nose on the back of her hand and purred “Darling, come to me, it is that day and I am wearing my best matching underwear”.

    Sergei turned to see the huge woman stuffing her tummy back into the greying army underpants, which, if they could, would reach up to her navel. Her matching bra drooped to kiss the hem of the pants. She sniffed again.

    Sergei Sergeyovich buried his head in his hands and thought nice thoughts of the days in the Gulag.

  • helena says:
    4th August 2008 at 9:30 am

    Eat your heart out Solzhi. I think we may have found his natural successor, remember you read him first here guys…..
    Hx

  • ruth says:
    5th August 2008 at 9:42 am

    He appears to have had his face carved up with an ice pick. Now, as that did not happen to him in the Gulag, I wonder when it did. Maybe in the years he suffered so terribly in exile in America…

  • helena says:
    5th August 2008 at 2:08 pm

    I agree – good candidate for some Botox!
    Hx

  • GHCH says:
    5th August 2008 at 6:31 pm

    A Day in the Life of The Idiot. Part 2.

    The sharp knock at the door made Sergei Sergeyvich’s heart sink. The guard, who had been standing there all night, told Sergei that the car had arrived.

    Wheezing out of the building on to the rain swept street, Sergei noticed that the car was not the usual Zil attended by two gorillas in black Homburgs and cheap overcoats, it was a white stretch Cadillac limo and the door was opened by a friendly young man in a smart suit. Where would they take him? He hoped against hope that it would not be another Oprah interview, Nescafé commercial or Vogue shoot.

    As the Cadillac sped along Fifth Avenue he again held his head in his hands to shut out the blinding Christmas illuminations and thought of the peace and tranquility of his far off Gulag home.

  • kitschen pink says:
    6th August 2008 at 10:58 pm

    suits me too!
    Delighted to have just found you via Wife in the North! LOVED two lipsticks. Have already ordered ‘To Hell’ from library (sorry – need oil for the Aga before I can buy books this year!). t.xx

  • replica watches says:
    28th March 2010 at 5:54 pm

    replica watchPanerai replicaRolex GMT watch for salereplica omegaBreitling watch for saleFerrari replicareplica Franck Mullerreplica IWC

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

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

 

 

© 2023 Helena Frith Powell
Website by Web Inclusion
/* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: content-template-for-layout-for-header-and-footer-layout - start */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ .helenaHero .mainTitle h1{ font-size:3em; -webkit-transition: all 0.8s; -moz-transition: all 0.8s; -ms-transition: all 0.8s; -o-transition: all 0.8s; transition: all 0.8s; margin-top:-100%; padding-top:100px; padding-bottom:50px; margin:0; } .scrolled .helenaHero .mainTitle h1{ font-size:1.2em; padding-top:30px; padding-bottom:20px; } /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: content-template-for-layout-for-header-and-footer-layout - end */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17hfp_about - start */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ .HFPA-section{ width:100%; background:#eee; } .HFPA-Image{ background-position:center right; background-repeat:no-repeat; height:276px; width:100%; -webkit-filter: grayscale(100%); /* Safari 6.0 - 9.0 */ filter: grayscale(100%); } .HFPA-Text{ padding:20px 10px; } /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17hfp_about - end */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17footer - start */ /* ----------------------------------------- */ .footIt{ background:#222; padding:20px 10px; } /* ----------------------------------------- */ /* Content Template: 17footer - end */ /* ----------------------------------------- */