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Things everyone should know

10th January 2007 by Helena 4 Comments  

I have just finished reading Nora Ephron’s latest book. It’s called I Feel Bad About My Neck and other thoughts on being a woman. I loved it, although I was a bit disappointed it was really a collection of articles and not one cohesive book. Even though I had never actually read any of the articles I felt a bit short-changed. Anyway, one of my favourite bits was What I Wish I’d Known (one of the few chapters that was actually written for the book). In in Nora lists just that. Some of my favourites are: The plane is not going to crash; If the shoe doesn’t fit in the shoe store, it’s never going to fit; When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you; Whenever someone says the words “Our friendship is more important than this,” watch out, because it almost never is and finally Never marry a man you wouldn’t want to be divorced from.

I have compiled a short list of my own things I think everyone should know.

Smoking is stupid

If you have to ask ‘does my bum look big in this?’ chances are the only honest answer is yes.

If you don’t ask, you don’t get (from Rupert’s grandmother Kitty – sadly now dead, a real gem)

If you keep drinking at that rate you ARE going to get a hangover

There is no upside to name-dropping

If you have to ask ‘do you love me?’ chances are the only honest answer is no

Friends will hate you if you tell them how to bring up their children

Mozart is the master

Children are never grateful

Our childhood was always much worse than our childrens’ childhoods

And our parents life was always much tougher than ours is

So we all have a dreadful time!


Filed Under: Books, blog --> Tagged With: everyone, should, things

4 thoughts on Things everyone should know

  • Rupert says:
    11th January 2007 at 5:10 pm

    I couldn’t agree with you more about stupidity of name-dropping: I was just discussing it with Mick Jagger and Kate Bush, and they agreed.

  • Rupert says:
    11th January 2007 at 5:44 pm

    From JP Miller:

    Today’s Greens are yesterday’s Reds.

  • Helena Frith Powell says:
    23rd February 2007 at 7:29 pm

    […] I am planning my trip to the US next week for my book on how not to age. Part of my aim is to interview interesting women of a certain age and discover their anti-ageing secrets. One of these women is the writer Nora Ephron (see below blog things everybody should know). […]

  • Kristy says:
    9th March 2009 at 6:59 am

    things I’d wished i’d known

    There is life & love after Mister Big.

    Don’t let life beat you down.

    Don’t use sex as a weapon.

    If work is all you live for, maybe you need to re-evaluate your life.

    Read books, ones from different genre, time periods,ones you would never read. It will make you a learnt person.

    Beauty is fleeting, life is hard, jobs come and go, but your SOUL Friends are priceless, so treat them like gold.

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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. Helena is working on a thriller called Thin Ice that will be published in 2021 as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

Her latest non-fiction work Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles came out in hardback in 2016 and in paperback in April 2018.

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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