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Update on Leonardo

22nd December 2009 by Helena 6 Comments  

I realise that Bea gets most of the column inches on my blog, but I have a few updates on Leo.

A few evenings ago we were invited to the Swedish ambassador’s residence to celebrate Santa Lucia. This is a Swedish tradition, a festival of light, where children wear candles (or lights nowadays I think it is, much safer I suppose but not as romantic) and sing beautiful songs. Traditionally we wake our parents up with coffee and cakes singing. Every school has a ‘Lucia-train’ as it is called and being chosen as the Lucia is a huge honour; like being a prom-queen or winning a beauty contest.

lucia_1908_by_carl_larsson

So there we were, listening to the lovely Swedish voices in the moonlight. I was almost in tears the nostalgia was so much. After two songs Leo turned to me.

lucia

“Mummy,” he said. “Is this going to go on all night?”

“Why?” I asked. “Don’t you like it?”

“Not much.”

I’m not sure he is really in touch with his Swedish side.

The bad news is that his best friend at school, Oscar, whom Leo describes as “just like me, only with less hair”, is moving to another school. He is leaving the French system for the British system. He will have a school uniform and play cricket. I am so tempted to move Leo as well, but is it mad to pay double the school fees so he can play cricket and be with his friend? Also it would mean the end of his French I fear….but on the other hand, the thought of Leo in a school uniform is just too divine. And I think he would be very happy; he is definitely more English than anything else.

Next year I might try taking him to the embassy carol concert instead.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2009


Filed Under: Britain, Children, blog --> Tagged With: leonardo, update

6 thoughts on Update on Leonardo

  • Arthur says:
    22nd December 2009 at 12:46 pm

    Poor Leo; I’m sure he will, in time, come around to appreciate beautiful blonds dressed all in white with candles in their hair. Just give him time.
    I remember we once had a Swedish au pair and it was a wonderful spectacle and experience to be woken by her dressed as you describe and singing her songs.

    On the subject of education: my daughter, educated in France, has just gone to a university in England. She and an Austrian friend are amazed at how the English students appear to be so poorly educated. I find this rather sad, especially as most of the young there will have been educated at state schools, which appear to have failed them once again. As she says, the French smoke, the English drink to excess.

    Perhaps Leo should stick with what he has started out with. It is probably better to have a good grounding in French than wearing a little uniform whilst swing a cricket bat.

    Have a Christmas full of joy. Arthur

  • helena says:
    22nd December 2009 at 1:32 pm

    Good advice bestarthur and a very happy Christmas to you too Hx

  • Apple Lane says:
    23rd December 2009 at 8:40 am

    Hi, Helena…

    Sorry this is off subject, but I just finished watching an episode of Rick Stein’s travels in France in which you were talking about writing a book(?) from the angle of the French dealing with the influx of Europeans, principaly the British.

    I thought this was a wonderful idea. As you said most of what’s out there is about the ex-pats moving to France and having to deal with the French way of life.

    I was wondering if you have already covered this in one of your columns or if you’re working on a book? I’m intrigued!

    Merry Christmas to you and your family from the Deep South.
    Apple

  • helena says:
    23rd December 2009 at 11:02 am

    Hi Apple and thanks for your post. I never did write that book, but I think I probably covered the topic in the Sunday Times column several times. Just go to http://www.sunday-times.co.uk and do a search under my name and they should all come up.
    Merry Christmas to you too
    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. Helena is also working on a thriller called Thin Ice that will be published in spring 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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