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The tennis bug…..

12th February 2011 by Helena Leave a Comment  

I have been trying in vain for years to turn one of my children into a potential tennis pro, or at least to engage them in the game enough to ensure I always have someone to play with .

Until yesterday, I had not been successful. Then came the breakthrough. I was actually hoping it would be one of the girls, as I rarely find anything they do amuses me (bitching at people on Facebook does not entertain me, nor does endlessly curling my hair). I was secretly hoping one or the other would suddenly stop complaining on court and wanting to go home and start trying to beat me. They have been having lessons since they could walk, but Olivia has given up completely and Bea, although she is getting better, does insist on doing cartwheels between each point which rather complicates things.

By the way, as this is a blog about tennis, I have taken the opportunity to share with you a picture of a semi-naked Rafa taken by my friend Karen. That is how close we were to him…

Of course it was Leo who had the ‘Eureka I love tennis’ moment. We were playing a mini-match and he was getting shots past me. Really good shots. Half-way through our match Bea dropped her ipod touch and the screen smashed into 100 pieces. Not surprisingly she went semi-hysterical. There was no consoling her.

“Don’t worry,” said Leo. “You can have mine, I don’t need it, I just want to play tennis.”

That’s my boy……

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2011


Filed Under: Children, Sport, blog --> Tagged With: tennis

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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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