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The talking hedge

13th August 2009 by Helena 7 Comments  

We drove over to dinner last night with my friend Regine and her husband Jean-Claude. The children stayed with Norrie and Mary. The drive was beautiful; I am more and more taken with this region. We had the GPS plotter leading the way and when she said: “caution you are entering a restricted area” we knew we had arrived.

Regine and Jean-Claude have a house just below the palace and Her Highness was not there but had sent food, crockery and servants. So I got closer to her than most. We had a fabulous evening; great fun people, lovely wine, good food including the MOST incredible brie stuffed with truffles which I don’t think I will ever forget. I sat next to a top surgeon and apparently Grey’s Anatomy is quite realistic (I don’t expect many people talk to him about soap operas but I just had to ask). He in turn told me I am far too thin so I had three puddings, what joy.

At one stage I heard my husband say to Regine: “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but you seem to have a talking hedge.”

He was right. The hedge was bleating on about how tired he was and how noisy we were and how he had to work in the morning. Regine offered him a glass of champagne.

bush.jpg

“I’m in my pyjamas,” said the hedge.

“We accept people in pyjamas,” she replied.

But he wasn’t moving. So we all told him (very loudly) we would be quieter. Rupert (what a hero) drove home around midnight and now we are getting ready to collect the children. Tomorrow we head to the Languedoc so I expect I will be off air for a while. After a brief trip to Stockholm for work we come back to this region for our last week and finally see THE house inside. As long as there are no talking hedges, I would like to buy it…..

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2009


Filed Under: Travel, blog --> Tagged With: hedge, talking

7 thoughts on The talking hedge

  • Elisabeth Loesch says:
    13th August 2009 at 10:01 am

    May called me this morning. She made no mention of the talking hedge but she did talk about you and your husband. Nothing but superlatives. You are such a looovely couple and you Helena are sooo beautiful! I now know what the hedge was talking about….

    Have a great holiday.

    Elisabeth

  • helena says:
    13th August 2009 at 4:20 pm

    Thanks Elisabeth – Rupert asked me to ask you to say sorry to May about not saying goodbye, he was taken off by Jean-Claude to get a football for Leo. He really enjoyed meeting her as did I.
    Hx

  • mimi says:
    14th August 2009 at 12:05 am

    3 puddings, now there’s a woman after my own heart.
    You’re obviously having a good holiday!

  • Amber Lee says:
    15th August 2009 at 8:21 am

    What on earth is a talking hedge?

  • Elise says:
    19th August 2009 at 5:17 pm

    Hello, I just wanted to stop by and leave you a comment to say how much I’ve enjoyed reading your blog today. You posts are excellent and your pictures, well, they perfectly match your writing.

    Best wishes & thank you for sharing them…

  • helena says:
    20th August 2009 at 7:24 am

    Thanks Elise, what a lovely thing to say.
    Amber – the hedge hid a grumpy Swiss man in pyjamas.
    Hx

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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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