helena frith powell

ON the whole, my English friends have a relationship with their underwear that is a little like the one they have with their dishwasher. It’s useful, not very pretty and lasts for decades. I remember one pal once joking that of course her underwear was …

A tall, slim woman in her thirties wafts across the room – all thick glossy hair, blemish-free skin, clear eyes, full lips and an air of confidence normally reserved for French women from the bon quartier of Paris. Or at least this is how I believe I l …

By Helena Frith Powell  Sitting in a fibreglass tub at a birthing centre in Crowborough, East Sussex, 22 years ago, many things went through my mind as I worked to welcome my first child into the world. ‘When is this going to stop?’ being the most …

By Helena Frith Powell   While shopping with my 22-year-old daughter this August, I recalled how much I love dungarees. My daughter tried on a dark blue linen pair. They looked fabulous. She suggested that ‘we’ buy them and share them. ‘I’m t …

By Helena Frith Powell   Should your child behave badly, it’s probably your fault. I write as a mother of two girls who used to dread parents’ evening — it was one protracted and painful apology. One of the problems is the misguided notion no …

By Helena Frith Powell When our son was born, I tried to get several ridiculous names past my husband: Raphael, Salvador, Angelo, even Gabriel. But not at any moment in my postpartum confusion did it occur to me to suggest Lucifer. I admit it has a cer …

As Kirsty Bertarelli – newly crowned Britain’s most eligible divorcee – surveys the £400 million settlement that marks the end of her 21-year-long marriage to Swiss businessman and pharmaceuticals heir Ernesto Bertarelli, one could be forgiven for wond …

By Helena Frith Powell Rather than arguing about who is going to empty the dishwasher, in our home we have endless fights about filling it. I stand alone (unless Rishi happens to pop in for lunch) in the ‘everything has its place’ corner. In the opposi …

At dinner time we serve two kinds of wine: undergraduate wine and graduate wine. The latter is superior and only given to those who have a degree. Sometimes, on special occasions, those in the process of completing a degree are allowed some, but it is …

After a year of working from home there are those who will now be keen to swap an unpleasant commute for an amble down the stairs or a desk opposite the accounts department to one overlooking their geraniums forever. And some generous bosses might even …

Despite French criticism, the series has drawn a huge audience, thanks in no small part to its heritage. If you’re getting déjà vu — pretty young woman working in media teetering round a major city in ever more extravagant outfits — it’s no coincidence …

NO By Helena Frith Powell How would you feel if you had to sign a ‘no romance’ clause when you started a new job? Astonishingly, this is now common practice in the U.S. Meanwhile, BlackRock, one of the world’s largest asset-management firms which has a …

YES By Jenni Murray   My old man isn’t likely to be among the first in line at the new John Lewis make-up counter for men, but would I find him less attractive if he were? Certainly not. Why shouldn’t he pop a smidgen of Touche Eclat over his …

DAILY MAIL 7 AUGUST 2019 – When my husband and I moved to France in 2000 with our one-year-old daughter, Olivia, I learned an awful lot about the cultural differences between our two countries from my new mum friends. Not only, it appears, do French wo …

I used to be mad about Elizabeth Arden’s Eight Hour Cream. It seemed to me like a little miracle in a tube that helped with everything from dry lips to children’s grazed knees. My first summer sizzler is a slight variation on the cream; The Lip Protect …

‘They can replace hands and lungs, they can fit pacemakers, but they can’t do a damn thing about hot flushes,’ laments the lead character in the new French hit film Aurore, or I Got Life! to give it its English title. My first reaction on hearing this …

I can’t resist a bargain, so when my favourite nail salon offered me 50% off false eyelashes I thought ‘it would be rude not to’. So off I trotted yesterday to have them done, having completed a patch test a few days ago to make sure I wasn’t allergic …

The key ingredient is parmesan. Think of an amount and double it. At least. The first time I cooked Pasta alla Nonna, or grandmother’s pasta, I was 12 years old and had never tasted parmesan. That may sound ridiculous, especially as I’m half Italian, b …

This is one of those things that, having found it, I never want to be without it. How many times have you had your car washed and they’ve put some hideous smelling thing in it? Or you’ve got into your car only to find your teenage son has left his foot …

I don’t have much in common with Kim Kardashian. For example when I ask the question ‘does my bum look big in this?’ I prefer the answer to be no. But Kim and I do have one thing in common, a favourite eye cream. Made by a company called Stem Cell Beau …

By the time it got to Saturday evening, none of us could remember exactly when we’d last seen him, we only knew he was missing. We’d rolled in at 2am that morning after an evening of wine and music with an octogenarian friend of ours (these 80 somethin …

I first went to Paris when I was 14 years old. I was travelling with my father who introduced me to a “friend” of his, a dancer at the Lido called Sophie. Something she told me has remained with me ever since. “All you need to be a French woman,” she s …

Helena Frith Powell moves beyond beauty and chick-lit with her latest novel – and tells Jessica Knipe how moving to France has changed her life forever Matching bra and knickers – check. Daytime-appropriate lipgloss – check. Driving through the picture …

During my last visit to France I visited my beautician. I have known Chantal, who works in a salon in Montpellier, for 15 years and I always pop in for a facial and to talk about the latest skincare products. This year, she had some unusual advice for …

Not even Scarlett Johanssen could do it. Hang on to a French husband that is. Two and a half years after she married Romain Dauriac the father of her daughter Rose, the actress is filing for divorce. She doesn’t give a reason, but in an interview a few …

Emmanuel Macron’s wife is 24 years his senior. Do the French care about the age gap?   There’s a sudden spring in every older Frenchwoman’s step. Being over 60 was never an obstacle to being attractive. In France there is no age limit to wearing m …

I am reading The Leopard at the moment, Don Fabrizio reminds me so much of my father, he’s almost a literary incarnation of him. It is just over three years ago since my father died. I wrote some of this at the time, and have added to it. We miss you b …

Revolutionary beauty therapy promises to bring out the best in your bosom By Helena Frith Powell For The Daily Mail Apparently, we Brits are blessed with the most impressive breasts in Europe. The average size in the UK is between 36C and 34E, and it i …

HELENA FRITH POWELL dared try it for a month – vampire facials and all Have you wondered what it would be like to have all the money and time in the world to spend making yourself look younger? That’s the life former TV presenter Trinny Woodall, who’s …

One dye-hard brunette tries out the latest age-defying salon treatment Dyeing my hair was one of the first things I ever did to fight the ageing process. I was in my mid-30s when the first bits of grey poked through. I remember being livid. As well as …

A survey in France has found that relationships between older women and younger men are on the rise. French couples explain the benefits of an age   During my last visit to France I visited my beautician. I have known Chantal for 15 years. She wor …

Author Helena Frith Powell shares her top 10 tips to ageing well – and her list of things to avoid… Mix a face oil with a nourishing face mask for extra effect Top top tips for avoiding wrinkles 1: Embrace face oils As our skin ages it gets drier. Face …

Helena Frith-Powell was initially very intimidated by the elegant Frenchwomen she met when she first moved to France in 2000. Here she asks three French women what they really think about Brits We have always felt threatened by our French counterparts, …

It all starts with a phone call. “Mummy,” Olivia yells. “It’s an emergency, I came off my bike and my tooth has come out. There’s blood everywhere.” It is impossible to work out from the hysterical rant where she is but we rush out of the house at 11.3 …

I read with dismay that Germany is about to introduce single-sex carriages on the underground due to the amount of sex attacks on women by migrants. What kind of message does this send? It sends a message that we are willing to accept this outrageous b …

Kristin Scott Thomas slammed British women in Marie France this week, calling them ‘drunk, vulgar, lacking in style and orange’ due to fake tan. Helena Frith Powell said she too was ‘tres British’ when moved to France but has changed…  By Helena Frit …

There are several stages of parenting, and you tend to share them with your girlfriends. The excitement of the first pregnancy scan, the birth, followed by the toddler stage, comparing first steps and first words, the funny things they say, the adorabl …

Today is my father’s birthday. Or at least it would have been, but he died in January 2014. I didn’t really know him until I was a teenager. My mother and he split up when I was two. She and I moved to Sweden then England and we had no contact with him …

Can an affair actually save a marriage? Helena Frith Powell argues for the continental approach to fidelity   I have a vivid memory of my grandfather sitting at the kitchen table, being consoled by my grandmother. “What’s wrong?” I asked my father …

Has anyone else found that the more choice we have on TV the less there is to watch? Last night I scrolled through the channels. At the last episode it really was too late for me to get into The Great British Bake Off. I love The Simpsons but just wasn …

“We know not whether laws be right Or whether laws be wrong All we know who lie in gaol Is that the walls are strong And each day is like a year A year whose days are long.” This is an excerpt from Oscar Wilde’s The Ballad of Reading Goal, which I was …

Never mind what everyone wore to the Oscars. This is clearly THE jacket to be seen in this week. There I was innocently knocking up a soup last night when my daughter sent me a text with a picture of a jacket from some trendy website with a picture of …

Should you go straight into a job and demand maternity leave? No, argues Helena Frith Powell If Labour wins the election the shadow works and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves says she would like to join the new cabinet before she goes on maternity leav …

I am back at Viva Mayr for the first time since 2008. I landed late last night and have woken up to a snow-covered landscape. The staff all wear white, thus matching the surroundings. In fact some of the clients are in white too, but you can tell they …

On our way to the south of France from England, Leo and I passed the time listening to Desert Island Disks podcasts. One of the best ones was Bear Grylls. He spoke about his decision to climb Everest as he lay in hospital with a broken back. It was in …

I am delighted to present a guest blog from my great friend Floss who runs a brilliant website called uktherapyguide.com. Her son was very badly bullied so she speaks from experience.  In my work as a psychotherapist and my life as a mother, I have wit …

As Miss Knightley laments the fact that she misses out on roles because she is too pretty, one writer says she should be grateful   There are certain events in my life that I know never would have happened if I’d been born ugly. Real life-changing …

  It was the week before I was due to give birth to our first child that I got the call (Helena Frith Powell writes). “My date has pulled out of the party,” wailed my best friend. “Please, please lend me your husband.” The party in question was so …

The other night I had a drink with a friend of mine who had just had lunch with her parents. She took a sip of her wine and sighed. “For everything they’ve ever taught me, I may as well be an orphan,” she said. My friend had what I would describe as a …

It’ll infuriate feminists but HELENA FRITH POWELL – who once lived for her career – says she’s stumbled on a basic human truth At first, Helena was too scared to admit she was a stay-at-home mother, now she sees it as a ‘liberation’ Two years ago I sud …

It’s the moment all women dread. Four writers reveal when it hit them By JILLY JOHNSON and KATE GARRAWAY and CLAUDIA CONNELL FOR MAILONLINE and HELENA FRITH POWELL Actress Sharon Stone struck a chord with women everywhere recently when she revealed the …

Never mind 40 being the new 30, it seems 50 is the new 15. A few nights ago I went out with some friends. They bought along a couple I had never met. They were my age (in fact possibly even older) but spent the entire evening kissing, touching and feed …

Last night I dreamt that Petr Cech had cancer. Most you won’t know who he is, and there’s no reason why you should unless you’re a football fan. He is Chelsea’s brilliant goalkeeper, has been since 2004.For some reason I was with him when he discovered …

François Hollande’s love life has highlighted French attitudes to extra-marital affairs. But what is it really like to be the ‘other’ women in France? In my next life, I want to be a French mistress. I know quite a few of them. They don’t have the same …

Now that New Year is finally over, it’s time to look forward to the rest of 2014. Bea, for example, has compiled a ‘Wish List’ with the item on it and a little box to tick when it has been fulfilled. For those of you wishing to do the same I have scann …

In a few isolated towns in Abu Dhabi’s remote western region, women weavers are reviving a craft that was once central to Bedouin culture. Helena Frith Powell meets them and explains how, with the help of the Khalifa Fund, they are honing traditional s …

Should female MPs make an effort with their looks? Absolutely, argues Helena Frith Powell   When Segolene Royal, the former leader of the French socialists, was standing for president I went to interview her. In front of her on the table she had a …

This is not usually a forum for serious topics, but I want to highlight Vicki’s story. She is a friend of a friend, who is in the process of escaping from her husband and emotional abuser. They have three small children, twins aged four and a toddler b …

Is it purely coincidence that when 50 Shades of Grey topped the bestseller lists all over the world, leather was suddenly back in fashion? Even M&S has now come up with a pervy underwear range. I sometimes wonder if there is a conspiracy by some al …

I have just read in Muscat Daily the amazing story of Haifaa al Mansour, Saudi Arabia’s first female film director. Her film, Wadjda, is the first Saudi film ever to be up for an Oscar. It is the story of a young girl’s desire to own a bicycle, a commo …

A friend of mine told me recently that moving to the Middle East saved her marriage. “There is no doubt,” she said, “that if we’d stayed in England we would have been divorced by now.” My friend is a working mother. Her husband is useless around the ho …

As I dropped Leo off this morning at the hallowed Chelsea training ground in Cobham I was more than usually relived. It is always a joy dropping him off at any sporting venue, but this was particularly poignant because only a few days ago he was lying …

Perish the thought of stripping off and showing builder’s bums. Gallic men don’t let style slip even in the heat   While the heatwave rages in England, bringing out more moobs and orange six-packs than anyone should have to deal with in a lifetime …

It is a truth universally acknowledged that only a foreigner (like me) can have such a ridiculously romantic view of England. I am at my happiest when in England, especially now with Wimbledon in full swing, the sun shining and Pimm’s flowing. When I a …

I have decided to try my hand at an internet bestseller. It worked for 50 Shades so why not? This is not going to be badly-written porn though, rather more in the Enid Blyton vein of writing. Let me know what you think…. Chapter One “What is the naug …

“Would you be angry if I covered a lacrosse pitch with loo paper?”This slightly leading beginning to an email was sent to Rupert yesterday, and alerted us to the fact that Bea had been up to mischief at school. The girls have settled in enormously well …

Helena Frith Powell’s new novel, The Ex-Factor, is about first love   There’s something so powerful about first love. As Bob Dylan put it so beautifully: ‘The future for me is already a thing of the past – you were my first love and you will be my …

I wrote this article in 2007 for the Sunday Times. Denise died earlier this month and I am posting it with much sadness but happy memories of meeting her. When Irene Némirovsky was sent to Auschwitz she left behind a hidden literary sensation – and a l …

I once met Mrs Thatcher at the British embassy in Paris. The year was 1989 and I was staying with my friend Iona, the daughter of the then ambassador. He is a lovely man called Sir Ewen Fergusson, who was and remains my idea of a perfect ambassador, ta …

It all started with an email entitled ‘worried’ from my mother. No one had heard anything from my father for two days. “He’s not answering the door, or the phone,” she wrote. “The lady who lives below him hasn’t heard anything at all. And he’s locked t …

Just after Christmas we went to a party at the home of a French family we are quite friendly with. Like us, they have three children aged between nine and 13. Unlike us, these children look and behave like they have leapt straight from the pages of a ‘ …

Should we raise the age of consent? Helena Frith Powell argues a law will make no difference at all   When I was fifteen years old a boy stayed the night with me. Once he had left the following morning, my mother popped her head around my door. “D …

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a middle-class mother in possession of daughters must be in want of a school. Or at least an expat middle-class mother who is utterly horrified at the level of education on offer where she lives. Next week th …

Several years ago,when I was still editing the magazine Central European (a must-read) I used to travel to Russia every few weeks to write a supplement we ran called Russiamoney. This was back in the early 1990s when Russia was just opening up, and the …

When an online novel, Desperate In Dubai, hit the internet last year, it immediately attracted thousands of dedicated readers, all even more desperate than its characters to know what happens next. Helena Frith Powell talks to its anonymous author abou …

Cherie Blair, the wife of Middle East envoy and former British premier Tony, is a power in her own right. A high-flying lawyer, she is now dedicating more time to her foundation, which helps women in the region achieve their potential. Helena Frith Pow …

Brash and gaudy? Mussolini’s Margate is being revived RIMINI will always be a special place for me because it is where I first saw my father. My parents divorced when I was a baby and I had no contact with him until I was a teenager. When I was 12 my m …

Should you forgive an affair? Yes, argues Helena Frith Powell Ronan Keating’s wife Yvonne says she finding it difficult to forgive him for having an affair. Well here’s a thought, maybe it’s just not about her.  There are children involved here and may …

I hated being a teenager. I was utterly angst-ridden. Not so much in the existentialist ‘why am I here?’ department, but just about everything else. I was too skinny, too foreign (at the time practically the only brown-haired, brown-eyed girl in the wh …

Before moving to the UAE we lived in France. I didn’t make many friends, French women are notoriously difficult to make friends with, but those friends I did have spent most of the summer talking about just one thing: la rentrée. La rentrée is the Fren …

She is one half of Egypt’s cinematic power couple, but Mona Zaki tries to shy away from the spotlight. Helena Frith Powell sits down for a rare interview with the national film star. For a woman who has become famous this year for being beaten by her h …

Reports of the First Lady Valerie Trierweiler’s former affairs are scurrilous even by Gallic standards Two lovers, allegedly, and a husband waiting at home: the multi-tasking Valerie Trierweiler Photo: AFP/Getty Images By Helena Frith Powell 8:03PM BST …

Nawal El Saadawi has returned to Cairo where intends to stay until she dies. Not that she feels particularly at home there. “Home is not about where I am. I would not call Cairo home. I feel at home wherever I meet people I feel at home with,” she tell …

When Olivia was about five, she came rushing into my office one evening. “Mummy,” she said, gesticulating wildly. “There’s a big, big problem. I dropped the torch and Bea’s got blood.” This was no normal torch. It was one of those massive American fire …

Inès de la Fressange, the former French supermodel, shares her literary choices with Helena Frith Powell   Inès de la Fressange was the original French supermodel. Born in the Var region of France in 1957, Inès Marie Lætitia Églantine Isabelle de …

Whether by choice or necessity, more women are reversing roles with their husbands to become the main breadwinner for the household. Helena Frith Powell examines how the changed job landscape in the UAE has affected family dynamics.   Ask practica …

I remember when I was at school we used to have to write an essay at the beginning of term about our summer holidays. I could never really think about much to write, except of course for the summer when my mother and I escaped from her third husband in …

On Monday the children and I head off on our travels until August 31st. This will be the first time in four years that I will have been away for the summer. We arrived in August 2008 and since then, even if the girls have been able to escape for much o …

I meant to post this ages ago. One night during dinner we asked Leo to describe in one word what he thought of us all. Here are the results: Mormor (my mother) – never ageing Nirosa (our housemaid) – kind Olivia (sister) – trouble Bea (sister) – capric …

I have been writing a column for Good Housekeeping magazine here since December last year. Here is the first one. This will be our fourth Christmas in Abu Dhabi, and I’m determined to get it right. Last year we were almost there, but I fear the pink tr …

OK I promise I won’t go on about the AMAZING Champions League victory on Saturday, I realise most of my readers are not obsessive Chelsea fans. But today is George Best’s birthday, so it would be rude not to mention football at all. Even those of you w …

I have always wondered what it would be like not to work. I have literally not stopped since university. I never had maternity leave (I was making calls from my hospital bed) and although I worked from home for a long time in France, I had at least thr …

Exactly a week ago today I was made redundant. I was called up to an office in the HR department (never a good sign) and “let go” along with two of my colleagues. We were told they were closing the magazine as a result of a focus group investigation in …

There is a famous saying that women of a certain age discover either God or gardening. I would like to add a third discovery, every bit as all-encompassing and obsessive: Tennis. I have loved tennis since I was a child. I was never much good at it, the …

I have the perfect answer to getting through an eight-hour flight in economy. Watch seven hours of Downton Abbey. I have been desperate to see it ever since all my friends in England first mentioned it and raved about it endlessly and lost the will to …

When I was buying Christmas presents for the girls this week I was struck by how very different the kinds of things I was looking at were from last year. There is nothing in a toy department that would interest them now, for example. Gone are the pet s …

Thirty-eight years ago, Randa Habib landed an interview with King Hussein of Jordan, a meeting that would change the course of her life. The veteran AFP news bureau chief talks to Helena Frith Powell about her life and her book on Jordan’s royal family …

I have just got back from Italy where I was visiting my father, who is ill in hospital. He will be 87 in December, but it was still a shock to see him so weak and, well OLD, for the first time ever. I wrote him a letter on the way back to the airport b …

The number of female applicants to the Abu Dhabi police has doubled after a recruitment drive started in October. Helena Frith Powell gets rare access to see the latest cadets at their training school. Emirati women are perhaps not renowned for their l …

Ever wondered what fashionistas do? Yes, me too. I spent a day as one earlier this week and have to say, it’s all rather exhausting. First of all you have to spend hours deciding what to wear. Then you get to the event and think ‘shit, I’m over/under-d …

Baby Bea (almost 11) has a boyfriend. Rather confusingly he is called Leo, but apparently has lovely curly black hair and is very cute. They have so far carried out a rather Middle-Eastern style relationship, in that it was arranged, and they never rea …

As his Dubai shop prepares to celebrate 10 years of business later this month, the designer Paul Smith talks to Helena Frith Powell about how he started in fashion, the Arab Spring, what makes a snappy dresser and why he almost refused a knighthood …

The former England rugby star reveals a few of his favourite things and places to Helena Frith Powell Jeremy Guscott, a former England rugby player, is considered one of the most thrilling centres ever to grace the game. His smooth running style and sp …

I was at university with Will Carling, who used to be the captain of the English rugby team, back in the days when it was all amateur and there really wasn’t any money involved, just occasional glory. Will went out with Iona, my best friend at uni, and …

I am at home today in order to focus on what the French call la rentrée and what we know as going back to school. It is a big day for the Wright/Frith Powell children. Olivia moves up to Year 8, Bea starts senior school (Year 7) and Leo moves to the sa …

Helena Frith Powell on how to survive the ordeal of sending the kids back to school. FEELING STRESSED? The American novelist and editor Edgar W Howe once said: “If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane a …

The most wonderful memory of my trip to Italy this summer is from a party that my mother had. She billed it “an evening of poetry and magic” and it was held at a friend’s house next to a river in Umbria. The magic was the atmosphere, as well as a charm …

When I was a little girl, we lived at a place called Home Farm, just outside Newbury in Berkshire. We rented part of a house on the farm. There was a lot to do in the English countryside; making houses with bails of straw, for example, and cycling arou …

From a media mogul to a jet pilot, M profiles 10 diverse, career-minded women from the UAE and across the region who have raised eyebrows excelling in their fields, challenging inequalities as they chart the course for a generation of educated and ambi …

We are on holiday. I don’t know why we don’t spend more time on holiday, it is quite wonderful. As soon as we got to our friends Norrie and Mary’s the children did what they long to do in Abu Dhabi bu can’t, ran through a lush green field. It was one o …

OK, so I would have preferred him to become a tennis player, but it seems that if he is destined for sporting greatness Leo will be a footballer. But it will not be an easy journey. I just thought that people were born with amazing talent (which he cle …

This morning as I was battling on the exercise bike, I watched a brilliant programme on the French channel Arte about the feminst group ‘Ni Putes, Ni Soumises’ (not whores, nor submissives). Obviously as it was all in French I hardly understood any of …

Five years ago, Dianne Reed barely survived a militant attack on her compound in Saudi Arabia in which 22 others died. Helena Frith Powell meets the American who moved back to the Middle East to prove that peace can win over violence What would you say …

I am almost at the end of the most brilliant book called Persepolis by an Iranian woman called Marjane Satrapi.I know it’s not new and everyone else has probably already read it, but it has really brought home to me several things. First, the joy of a …

Helena Frith Powell meets the young female Emirati artists who have a keen sense of commitment to their nation and their history.   Take six young women, all beautiful and clever, but with two things in common that may be even more crucial in shap …

I have decided that, as a busy working mother, if I want to spend time with my children, I need to find things I can do with them. I mean things that I would also otherwise be doing, such as playing tennis. The obvious candidate for tennis is of course …

Fifty years on, Lady Elizabeth Anson’s party planning business remains an A-list choice, and no wonder. As Helena Frith Powell learns, the down-to-earth aristocrat, who is in the UAE to organize the Rolls-Royce Ball, is organised, animated and full of …

I have been worried that Leo is far too nice for his own good. He never does anything remotely mean or nasty, is constantly kind and considerate and generally just gorgeous. But yesterday he proved that he has a little more mettle than I credit him wit …

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 breakthr …

Last week I joined the ladies who lunch brigade. Our lovely housemaid went off to Sri Lanka on holiday and so I decided to become a housewife for a few days. The plan was slightly complicated by the fact that I had to finish final edits on Love in a Wa …

Hello this is Bea and Leo, today on Saturday 18 of December 2010 we are going to tell you what we got mummy for her B-day! Me (Bea) & Leo & Olivia have created a magazine called Powell BTW I came up with the name! and it was lovely well we think it is …

In an ideal world, it would be the temperature it is now in Abu Dhabi all year round. As most of Europe freezes under a hideous cold spell, we spend our time outside playing tennis, walking, even doing yoga on the beach. For the children, especially li …

Float through any social event with M’s fast facts. This week Helena Frith Powell tells us more about George Eliot, the English feminist author who died on December 22, 1880 WHO IS HE? Er, I think you mean, who is she? George Eliot is the pen name of t …

As you know from my previous blog, Olivia has a boyfriend. Quite what having a boyfriend aged 11 entails I am not sure, but I am told there is no kissing (“yuk”) or in fact any dates. As you quickly realise living in this part of the world, once you ge …

This week Leo has excelled. He has been football team captain, as well as Man of the Match, and he scored a double hat-trick. At school he won not only the Principal’s Award for his project on snakes, but also table of the week in class. Last night he …

Last night we all watched the documentary film The September Issue which is about American Vogue and its legendary editor Anna Wintour. The film centers on the biggest issue of the year, the September issue, and follows the fashion shoots, Anna’s meeti …

A day out with children at the Aquaventure water park at the Atlantis hotel in Dubai requires more than one leap of faith The first, and best-known ride, is the Leap of Faith water slide that involves climbing to the top of a ziggurat and launching you …

Last time we moved, and I mean really moved, as opposed to leaving Sainte Cecile with a car full of belongings, I was eight months’ pregnant. Rupert had already gone on ahead to France to “prepare” the new house and I was left with Olivia to pack up ou …

Olivia was away for most of the summer, staying with my mother in Italy. But when she came home, apart from speaking some Italian, there was no discernible difference. After four weeks of boarding school she has become a teenager. This may sound bad, i …

The life and times of the French fashion designer and founder of one of the world’s top fashion houses THE BASICS The French fashion designer and founder of one of the world’s top fashion houses, Christian Dior, was born in 1905 in Granville, a seaside …

One of the first conversations I ever had with Rupert was at the business magazine we both worked at when we were starting out in journalism. “Why aren’t you working at Vogue or some other woman’s magazine?” he asked. I remember being terribly insulted …

We headed up to Dubai yesterday to visit our boarding-school girl. She had a heartbreaking wobble when we first arrived but things went from bad to truly wonderful. She is a joy to be with and already seems so grown up. I fear though that she may be in …

As thousands of Olivia’s contemporaries settle into damp, cold boarding houses all over the UK, she has moved into what is locally known as the ‘Dubai Palace’ for her first term as a boarder at Repton School Dubai. The accommodation is a vast villa, wi …

The expat ladies who lunch are feeling the credit crunch. With ‘hubbies’ losing their jobs, these women face losing their privileged lifestyles. Helena Frith Powell goes looking in the old haunts for the last of this endangered species.   Never mi …

We have been home for a week and are getting ready to leave again. I am not quite sure what to think. Part of me wants to sort out the whole house, unpack all the boxes and just never ever leave again and yet part of me thinks ‘thank God we don’t live …

The French designer Agnès b has one film company, two art galleries, over 200 shops and 2,000 employees. But, she tellsHelena Frith Powell, her international triumphs are merely a means to more compassionate ends. Agnès b is wearing green. I am surpris …

Sometimes when travelling with your children they ask questions that make you truly proud. This was not such an occasion. Helena Frith Powell visits Atlantis with her family Sometimes when travelling with your children they ask questions that make you …

We decided to let the ferals loose on KidZania for a day at Dubai Mall while we browsed around the bookshop and had a long lunch ‘One of the things about travelling with kids,” said my husband, “is that once in a while you’ve just got to get rid of the …

I am having a nice time hanging out with Leo, while the girls are away in Italy visiting Roman ruins and avoiding my aunt. Hanging out with Leo means not only learning to love the Beautiful Game. It means learning to live, breathe, dream, think and tal …

Much has happened. The girls went off to Italy to stay with my mother. Then they went to Croatia with my aunt. What happened between then and their week-early return yesterday is a little hazy. But according to my aunt they refused to speak to anyone a …

There is nothing quite like the build-up to a birthday for a child. Leo has been in a state of excitement for the past three months. and this morning it was finally time. “It’s my birthday,” he told me at 6am. He was standing by the mirror. “Gosh I’m b …

So the most shocking one was that I found myself supporting Germany against Argentina. It started with a nasty foul by the Argies and then a game of football played by the Germans the way it should be played. Totally magical and heavenly to watch. The …

During the car journey back home from Oman we asked the children what they had done that morning. “We woke up,” said Bea, referring to herself and her friend Polly, “we went for a bike ride up to breakfast and then we had breakfast. We had cut up banan …

I was a stepmother before I was a mother, to the lovely Hugo and Julia, who were still little enough to really mother and look after. “This is perfect,” I used to say to Rupert. “Two beautiful children and I still get to keep my figure.” Then something …

There are not many upsides to Leo coming into our bed at 3am but here are two. First at 6am I was woken up by him laughing in his sleep. It was a rather delightful way to be woken up, by a little toothless chuckling boy. Then when he woke up he told hi …

This girl will go far; note the subtle but lethal combination of bribery and playing on my worst fears in this email asking for a new phone….. Hey mama, I know how you said i have to wait 3 to 4 weeks to maybe get that phone… well i was thinking th …

This is getting ridiculous. I have no time to blog. So many things happen that I want to talk about and then suddenly another day has gone by and I haven’t had a chance. So here is a quick summary of recent events… Most upsetting moment – the Wikilea …

Leo is still terribly in love. “I have a heart broken,” he told me last night. The cause of this is still Eloise who has now apparently fallen in love with a boy with dark hair – can you imagine? “It’s not about how cute you are mummy,” he told me angr …

Charming personal embroideries by rural Pakistani women that now adorn chic handbags and purses will be on display at Al Bastakiya Art Fair in Dubai. Helena Frith Powell reports. The embroidery is flawless and the image charming. It is of a little girl …

We were at the hairdresser’s yesterday reading short story entries for the magazine’s annual short story competition while Hassan transformed our lanky hair into luscious locks. Here is the outcome: And here is an email Bea wrote to Rupert, it is vinta …

While I was in India last week I interviewed the writer Amit Chaudhuri. He was charming and interesting and terribly middle-class. He comes from a middle-class Bengali family, grew up with “servants” as he called them (interesting note we PC Europeans …

If I were to be reborn I would like to spend my childhood, or at least some of it, in Abu Dhabi. While I am mad about a kind of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ upbringing in England I wonder how possible that is any more and also if life as a child here also ha …

Ria Haffar is an interior designer turned yoga teacher. She is half-Lebanese and half-Czech and has lived in Abu Dhabi for 14 years with her daughter Iona. 1. Live life without expectations. This is the most important thing I have learnt. If you expect …

All went well. The Egyptian scarf was a huge success. Leo lent it to his girlfriend during the mid-morning break when she complained that she was cold. “Then I kissed her,” he told us proudly over lunch. “But not on the lips.” “Er, does she know she’s …

I returned from Cairo last night to sad news. Leo apparently came home from school yesterday weeping. “What’s wrong?” asked Rupert. “She broke my heart,” he wailed. “Who?” “My girlfriend,” Leo told him. This girl is the reason he was all dressed up on …

One of the results of making friends with my aunt again is that I am back in the will. I hasten to add that I am only back in the will because she tried to leave her money to my children, bypassing me, but was told they would have to pay inheritance ta …

For me it began with my birthday party – fabulous fun – and ended this morning when my in-laws went back home. Christmas Day was great; lunch around 4pm by which time Noch (see self-portrait below) and I had danced to most of the 80s hits on her i-pod. …

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 ch …

There is much to report on family life as the school holidays have begun. For some reason even the weekend seemed busier. I think we probably have only just recovered from the birthday party. And poor Rupert is business editor for two weeks so rarely o …

Princess Michael of Kent has several jobs, including author and gallery representative. Helena Frith Powell meets her in Abu Dhabi to talk art, family and trial by tabloid. Princess Michael of Kent has an eye for art. “I studied art history,” she says …

We are back from Italy and gearing up for Christmas. Apparently real Christmas trees are not readily available here, which came as a surprise to me. The thought of a fake one was too depressing. I considered several options before coming up with this.. …

I love it here it’s great . Today we are arriving in rome by train it’ gonna take us an hour to get there so wev’e arrived and we went to the taxi station and got a taxi from our appartement and we thought that it would be wonderful but when we get the …

We are in Rome, which I have decided is my favourite city. “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Rupert told the children as we landed. “It took two days.” “That long?” said Leo. He’s obviously got too used to Abu Dhabi. The day before yesterday the unimaginab …

Some things children say you never forget for some reason. Like when Hugo my stepson was about three and in a very solemn tone of voice declared that he was tired because “it’s been a long day”. Or Julia my stepdaughter would wake us up and say “it’s m …

I had am anguished telephone call from Schamanee our maid today as Leo, Rupert and I played cricket on the beach. “Madam, the girls are putting posters up,” she said. “I don’t know why.” I spoke to Olivia who explained that they are giving a concert to …

Thirty years ago, women in the UAE would have hardly left their homes. Times have changed. Helena Frith Powell meets some of the women making the most of both their careers and family life in a careful balance between opportunity and tradition. The thi …

There is a rather old-fashioned English expression to describe two people that are extremely similar. They are peas in a pod. I think one could safely say that Olivia and I peas in a pod. She looks like me (or rather like I used to) and we have scarily …

i first started by going in atlantis to go to the shark tank but it was to much of a kueu so me and daddy decided to go on it but he did’nt know where to put his bag so i was waiting at the little pool when he came back we decided to go but olivia and …

Bea and Leo entered their first-ever tennis tournament today. The prize for the winner of the tournament was to play with Rafa and Federer when they come over for the Capitala Tennis Tournament at the end of the year. I realised very quickly neither of …

Today was Bea’s ninth birthday. I took the day off work to be with her and do all the things she wanted to do. This included being hurled around in some simulator machine that literally had us upside down and to each side and all over the place. Appare …

As the world wakes up to a new Formula 1 racing champion in the shape of England’s Jenson Button – which is a bit of a blow to Abu Dhabi’s upcoming race in a couple of weeks – I bring news of another champion. Olivia the golfer. She set out today to th …

Imprisoned, exiled and accused of blasphemy, Nawal el Saadawi’s fighting words have for decades polarised opinion in her Egyptian homeland. Helena Frith Powell talks to the writer about a lifetime spent pressing for equality and pushing the traditional …

Here is my parental truth of the day: the girls are being dreadful and I don’t know what to do about it.  We don’t beat, starve or lock them up. And no form of punishment we think of (in fact about the only one we can think of is no TV or no pocket mon …

The girls have been very difficult recently, arguing about anything and everything. Olivia has moved in with Leo and they sleep together on the spare double bed like a young married couple, while Bea now starts in our bed and is carried through to hers …

Someone I interviewed once said that the greatest gift you can give your children is a love of reading. I am happy to say that after years of reading to them, encouraging them to read (by paying them 50 pence for every book they finished) and leading b …

I just had to show you all this…….we went shopping yesterday and Leo fell in love with his first ever suit. It is from Marks & Spencer and I think he looks quite divine, but then I normally do think that. Leo and Marks & Spencer, an irresis …

Today is a public holiday so Bea came with me to work. This is what she wrote, she called it ‘My first blog’. Here she is relaxing after work in a wig with her sister (Bea is on the right). how working in an office is like? well my parents work in an o …

When I was in Cairo, apart from the incredible Nawal El Saadawi, I met and interviewed one of the country’s most famous film stars; Mona Zaki. She was lovely. We met at her mother’s house where she fed me Ramadan sweets and tea and we chatted to her yo …

I have arrived in Egypt. As always my departure was not easy. The morning I was leaving Olivia’s ear infection came back, Bea had a “hurty tummy” and she lost her blue exercise book. Leo had the worst problem of all; a bad hair day. Anyway I managed to …

A few evenings ago I went out and left Rupert in charge of the children. The next morning when I got up I found Bea on the sofa reading Proust. In French. “What’s going on?” I asked him.  He told me he had read them the beginning of A la Recherche du T …

We have an office assistant on the magazine called Fadwa. She is great. Lebanese but raised in Abu Dhabi. She always has an opinion or something to tell us all. This morning she arrived with a quote of the day which is as follows: If you marry a monkey …

Today was the first day back at school; “la rentree” as the French call it (with an accent which I cannot find here). In France it is akin to Christmas in importance. It is something you prepare for weeks in advance. I remember once a French friend of …

In a rare interview, Dolce and Gabbana speak to Helena Frith Powell about their pursuits of perfection and the ‘real women’ they design for   Fashion duo Dolce and Gabbana, possibly the most famous ever, has been making stars look like stars for o …

It is astonishing to think that in the year 2009 a woman can receive 40 lashes from a whip-wielding police officer for any offence. It is even more astounding when you realise her “crime” was to wear a pair of trousers. This is what may happen to the S …

….Leonardo and er, some girl at summer camp. Yes, he is a little sketchy on the details but, he is in love and engaged. “Why?” I asked him. “Mummy, you know I’m going to have dark hair when I grow up. She’s got dark curly hair. That’s the thing,” he …

Six years ago today Rupert was watching the final of the Open and I was giving birth to Leonardo. To be fair, he did manage to tear him away in time to see the little man come out. My main memory is trying to remain elegant looking until a midwife told …

There are many reasons to have children. They make you laugh, they love you, you love them, they might look after you one day when you’re old and incapacitated and they are generally jolly lovely to have around. But one reason not to have them is their …

I have given up drinking. Not in the way I normally give up, for a few hours every New Year, but this will be my ninth alcohol-free evening. It all started when Rupert was told by a personal trainer that he had to stop for a couple of weeks. “I’ll do i …

Businesses offering to make you look your best are more popular than ever, but, how young is too young to enter into salon culture? By Helena Frith Powell   My stepdaughter Julia’s first visit to Abu Dhabi was a great opportunity for a manicure. N …

As I write the girls are in a Gondola in Venice. My aunt has declared them “very elegant” and says they have a “frenetic timetable”. They are having a lovely time and Olivia can now say ‘che bello mare blu’ which will come in very useful. Or rather mor …

On the shores of Austria’s picturesque Lake Worth lies a private clinic that has achieved an almost cult-like status among its loyal devotees, who include celebrities, business execs and Russian oligarchs. In the five years since it opened, an array of …

Yesterday Bea came out with a sentence that combined three languages, and one I have not heard of yet. I asked her to repeat something I had told her because I wanted to make sure she had understood. I had told her that her friend’s driver (yes, people …

Last week we won a competition for free golf lessons for the children. Rupert was working so I took them up to the Abu Dhabi Golf Club. I was slightly nervous as the minimum age was seven, which Rupert had them Leo was. He is only five. They were put i …

One of the things I and many others parents love about living in Abu Dhabi is the fact that it is so safe. We can let our children wander to the shops without risk of menace or around the malls without worrying about them being abducted. But there is o …

One of Ali’s daughters is getting married on Sunday. There are huge preparations going on. Yesterday the girls had their hands and arms hennaed (see below pic of Olivia, Bea and Salama, Bea only had one arm done because it hurt too much). This evening …

Sorry for the long silence. We are back after an amazing trip to England and France. I absolutely loved it. OK so it rained most of the time, but on Sunday we were in Herefordshire and it was the MOST glorious day. On a sunny day there is nowhere as be …

I tried not to think about the fact that things normally happen in threes when Olivia and Bea ended up in hospital a couple of weeks ago. But this evening when my friend Harriett (mother of Leo’s best friend Oscar) called I just knew. “He’ll be fine,” …

This weekend Leo made his big-stage debut at Abu Dhabi’s National Theatre. He played the King in his dance school’s ballet performance. I was totally over-excited the minute I saw the programme. There was his name, up at the top, among the stars. When …

The American writer Kin Hubbard once said: “No one can feel as helpless as the owner of a sick goldfish.” I disagree. I can’t imagine anyone feeling more helpless than I did last night when Olivia woke up with a temperature of 39.7. I lay there feeling …

So pity me. Here I am packing for a press trip. It will be arduous. It will be terribly hard work. And it will be tedious. Where am I going? A mathematics conference possibly? Or the annual-train spotters jamboree in Hull? No….I am going to the Chic …

There is good news and bad news. The bad news is I have had a terrible review of my new book on Amazon. The reviewer says there is no way the diet could be carried out at home. Which is exactly the one thing we all worked so very hard to achieve. The g …

Yesterday was a busy day. In between checking my amazon rating, I interviewed Christine Ockrent, who is Belgian but one of those women you always think of as French because she made her career there. She was, among other notable things, France’s first …

Olivia and I are addicted to Brothers & Sisters. We lie on my bed under the blanket and watch it on a portable DVD player. We have watched Grey’s Anatomy together, along with the first season of Desperate Housewives, before I decided it was too grown-u …

The lovely designer I met last week told me she has wanted to be a clothes designer since she was eight years old. I too, as a young child, had very fixed ideas about what I wanted to be. Up to the age of around 10 I wanted to be a vet for wild animals …

It’s an issue all parents face – but rarely talk about. Now, one mother dares to ask that important question… After giving birth, a woman thinks of many things; chocolate, baby names, how soon she can go home, how soon she can sit down without the he …

It has been a great week. I went to see the cellist Mathew Barley perform Bach’s cello suites at the British School here. It was truly amazing, as he said, there isn’t a note out of place. We could practically touch him we were so close. I have slept t …

When I was growing up in Berkshire I was mad about horses. One of my favourite stories I tell the children as I try to make them understand how lucky they are is how I used to muck out stables all weekend in exchange for one hour’s riding on a chestnut …

My in-laws arrived for a week’s visit yesterday. Yesterday I spent the evening with my father-in-law trying to get his hearing aid fixed. He is an example of how to go through life; happy and charming. We went to the Oxford Medical Centre first. “Do yo …

While the clothes of Paris Fashion Week are the topic on every fashionista’s lips,, Helena Frith Powell explains how to get in touch with your inner Frenchwoman. There is an expression used to describe French women when they really are perfect: French …

Ever since I heard the message on my answer machine back in 2003 telling me that the baby I was carrying was a boy, I have had day dreams of Leo becoming a sporting hero. At times when I can’t sleep I imagine myself at Wimbledon on a sunny day watching …

For us Friday is the new Sunday. Rupert has taken Olivia and Leo to the golf course. Since we moved here he has rediscovered golf. I catch him practicing his golf swing almost incessantly; in the supermarket queue, while watching the news, when collect …

When I was little I wanted to be an actress. “You don’t want to do that,” my mother said. “It’s just a lot of waiting around.” Yesterday I saw just how much waiting around is involved. I took the girls to audition for the musical Annie in Dubai. We got …

Yesterday evening Olivia fell down some steps at the music school chasing Bea. Being Olivia everyone thought she had broken her  arm in about seven places. We rushed off to hospital and the doctor thought the same. “I will get you an injection of pain …

who like’s atlantis who like’s atlantis it is very big and very beautifull it got’s the most amazing slide calld the leap of theaf and it’s in dubai but  it got’s other slide’s it gots  slide’s for little people and it gots the shark tank that’s my fav …

On the way home from school today we were listening to the radio. Suddenly ‘Knowing me, Knowing you’ came on. I raised the volume and the girls and I started singing along. For some reasons songs always sound so much better when they are unexpected. Fr …

I have just finished writing a timetable for the children’s after-school activities. Just looking at it exhausts me. Leo has football three times a week and now that he has been put forward for the RAD Pre-Primary ballet exam (YES!) he has to take his …

Olivia and Bea continue to impress me with their high-tech abilities. Now they are ‘chatting’ to each other via computers. Here is a transcript of their latest conversation: Olivia Wright to Beatrice hi beatrice how are you? i love you but we need to b …

One of the things I noticed about coming back to Abu Dhabi was how much more settled (and nicer) the children are being. It seems to me that going home to Sainte Cecile and realising it is all still there and not about to go away has made them more set …

So I was watching the Murray-Nadal final when my mobile phone (on silent) vibrated. There was a message from an unknown number. “No school tomorrow” it read. This was good news. Jet-lag had set in and getting up at 6.30am was not a great prospect. But …

As we watched Spider-Man reveal his identity to MJ yesterday Leo suddenly got a very serious look on his face. “Mummy,” he began slowly. “One day when I have a girlfriend, I will have to tell her who I am.” Leo/Spider-Man who obviously has girls on his …

My father came for Christmas. He is 84 and wrote a novel last year which won a major literary prize in Italy in September. He is an incredible character. Despite the fact that we have never lived together (my parents split up when I was two) he has an …

For me this Christmas really began with Leo and his ballet performance at Abu Dhabi Mall to the tune of ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas’. Now we are almost there. It is Christmas Eve and I am sitting by a roaring fire with our Credit Crunch Christmas Tr …

Paul, a friend and veteran of the Leap Of Faith, explains: ‘It’s just like bungee-jumping or paragliding. Have you ever tried those?’ Now you mention it, I haven’t. And I have never had any desire to do so. But as soon as I heard we were going to the A …

This was the conversation on the way to school today. Olivia: “Mummy, I don’t want to tell you this but I have to tell you something.” I assumed Bea had eaten my lip gloss or Leo had been wearing my bras. But it was worse. “We want to go home to France …

Three months after moving from France to Abu Dhabi, our expat is still living in a hotel and desperate to find an affordable family home. Helena Frith Powell November 16 2008, 12:00am, The Sunday Times When the gods want to punish you, they answer your …

After almost four months of constant sunshine the children and I were amazed this morning when we walked out of the house and got soaked. At first I assumed someone was washing the terrace, which would be an odd thing to do at 7.30 in the morning, but …

Mark Twain, the American writer, was rarely at a loss for words. But the sight of a belly dancer named Little Egypt in full flow at the World’s Fair in 1893 did not just render him speechless, it led to a suspected heart attack. Thankfully for both of …

A couple of nights ago I sat next to a young man at a drinks party who had escaped from Iran aged 14 in the back of a van. This was in 1987. So while I was going to dinner parties at university and making vital decisions like what to wear, he was riski …

What do you thing your average Abu Dhabian does of a weekend? A spot of swimming in the warm sea? A trip to the desert? Some camel racing perhaps? No, we go to Carrefour. For reasons too tedious to explain, I have been to two Carrefours today and you w …

My step-daughter Julia was here last week for half term. She is fourteen and I thought that she was old enough to come along with me for a manicure and a pedicure. We eased into our comfy chairs feeling jolly pleased with ourselves. Then I spotted her. …

One of the side-effects of moving to Abu Dhabi, apart from learning to pole dance and belly dance, is meeting interesting people and going to glittering events. It is true that in Gabian the most glittering event was watching Italy beat France in the f …

This morning a woman was shot on her way to work in Kabul by a fundamentalist who sped past her on a motorbike. Her crime? It could have been as mundane as being female and having a job. As it turned out she was a western aid worker whom they accused o …

When I dropped out of school aged 16 and got on a bus to London from Stockholm with my friend Suzanna I had one burning ambition. I wish I could say that I was heading to London with a fervent desire to free Tibet or even get a degree but no, I wanted …

I am back at my office at the Kempinski, gazing at the ski slope. The skiing the other day began badly. We all got to the top of the slope and the children refused to go down it. “I’ve forgotten how to ski,” declared Olivia. “How do we get down?” asked …

When I was a teenager I had a friend who owned a Porsche. It was white, sporty and made a hell of a noise. A nice noise though. A sort of deep sexy roar. I vowed that one day I would have one. I don’t know if it’s being part-Italian, but I do like a fa …

I have just finished a book called Burned Alive by a woman called Souad. She was a teenager when her brother-in-law poured petrol over her head and set fire to her. Her crime was serious in “honour” killing terms among Palestinians; she was pregnant. B …

Here is the first of my special guest blogs, it is an email from Bea, aged seven, to her grandmother……. dear mormor i hope you will com to see ous in abu dabi i will com to see you soon if my sister in italy abu dabi is nice but its hot but it dasent m …

Proof, if it was needed, that my neural pathways are well and truly blocked comes from the fact that I am finding it impossible to get my head around Sunday being Monday. Today (Monday), for example, feels like Tuesday and I woke up thinking about all …

I am hoping I have hit the low point. After yet another night of no sleep, a bean-bag exploding all over Amanda’s flat and no response from my high-powered contact, I was told the ballet class I wanted the girls to go to was full. I did what any normal …

So the international conspiracy to keep me awake has now reached ridiculous proportions. I leave the hotel room next to the mosque to move into my friend Amanda’s flat while she is away. But now instead of the mosque I have the combination of four cats …

“What is the hardest thing in Abu Dhabi?” Olivia asked the other day as she stood by the pool at The Club, tucking into an ice cream. “My stomach?” suggested Rupert. “Not having anywhere to live?” I ventured. “Eating an ice-cream,” said Olivia. “It mel …

During the rugby world cup last year I had an idea for a book called ‘How to seduce Jonny Wilkinson and other routes to happiness’. It was a book looking at what makes women happy, how we can be happier and so on. Obviously I have no idea how to seduce …

My friend Amanda sent me an email with an attachment describing three guinea pigs looking for a home. “Very cute four week old guinea pigs looking for a home,” it reads. “We like to stroll around, squeak all the time for food and we love to cuddle. All …

Today I made a most remarkable discovery. To understand just how remarkable we need to go back in time more than thirty years to when I was a little girl and playing with my some conically-shaped weights that belonged to my grandfather. I can’t remembe …

Today I substituted flat-hunting for the Marina Mall. The children chose their school bags; Olivia went for Pucca, Bea for High School Musical and Leo, you guessed it, Spiderman. We also invested in a portable DVD player which we should have done at th …

Women start to worry about losing their looks at the age of 28, according to a survey which polled the views of 4,000 women. So is this true, or does 28 sound too young – or too old? We asked several women writers, aged from 31 to 73, to reveal the mom …

This morning as my two girls were fighting over a Nintendo DS game, I was reading a heart-breaking story about Rabab, a little girl aged four and her twin brother who spend their summers working at a brick-making factory in Narwan, southern Iraq. You c …

I am in Austria at the Viva Mayr clinic and online again after several days. I am here for my new book deal; I am writing a diet book based on the Viva Mayr philosophy, which is all about chewing a lot and not eating too late. Well, there is more to it …

Stockholm seemed a fitting place to see the film version of Mamma Mia! Julia and I saw the musical a few years ago in London and loved it. As it was raining yesterday I took the four children off in search of a cinema. We eventually found one and settl …

Jean-Claude Benguigui aged five, Albert Bulka aged four and Paula Mermelstein aged 10 have one thing in common. They were three of 105 Jewish children, rescued by a Polish lady called Sabine Zlatin and bought to a country hideaway high in the hills abo …

A shocking new Ad campaign in the usually pro-thin country has promted calls for a law to combat the eating disorder Alongside the catwalk shows, the gossip and the glamorous parties, Paris fashion week was dominated by a billboard this year. It wasn’t …

It’s that time of year again, Wimbledon time, which means I get to put pictures of Marat Safin on my blog, oh joy! Last night he played an incredible match – we were all literally on the edge of our seats. Except Bea who declared the whole thing “borin …

A shocking new Ad campaign in the usually pro-thin country has prompted calls for a law to combat the eating disorder   Alongside the catwalk shows, the gossip and the glamorous parties, Paris fashion week was dominated by a billboard this year. I …

I had no idea where Abu Dhabi was until Rupert told me he had been offered a job there. He likes to get a proper job once every ten years or so, so he’s off to work on the business desk of a new newspaper called The National (www.thenational.ae). “I’ll …

When I was growing up there was only one supermodel who counted; Ines de la Fressange. She was Karl Lagerfeld’s muse, the face and body of Chanel, as good as it gets. On my desk as I write I am looking longingly at an invitation to a reception next wee …

When I went up to Paris for my style talk last week (which incidentally went very well except for the fact that I forgot the cardinal rule of hanging out with French women – never overdress – and consequently looked like a Christmas tree compared with …

We are in Cadaques, where normally at this time of year the children would be swimming in the sea and playing on the beach. But it’s raining. Not the sort of rain you can avoid. Sheets of rain that hit you like a bucket of water. We are here because Ru …

Yes, it’s official, I am a style guru. Not only did a member of the Tatler Magazine staff try to steal my red fake croc handbag at my book launch, but I am now being PAID to talk about trends and what motivates women to stay thin, pretty, fashionable e …

I am lying on a bed, eating almonds, covered in fake tan, reading Tatler. The last time I did this I was child-free and about 19. I am having an evening in after an exhausting day, which started with breakfast with the Features Director of Red Magazine …

They say your wedding day is the most important day of your life. Preparation often starts a year or more before the big day with dress fittings, gym memberships and debates about whether or not to risk falling up the aisle in your the seven-inch stile …

In To Hell in High Heels I say that if the book becomes a best-seller I will retire to the Clinique La Prairie in Switzerland. I have changed my mind. I will come to Renew Retreats instead. We are on day four and all is going swimmingly. The ladies are …

For Helena Frith Powell, having a third child was a luxury she could afford only by moving to France. She and her husband left their native Sussex, in England, to live in a converted farmhouse in the Languedoc region, in south west France. France is fa …

In order to break into journalism in England I was forced to become a financial journalist on leaving university. This was not, as you can imagine, my natural environment. I worked for the gripping title ‘Trade Finance Magazine’ which shortly after I j …

So I barely had time to stroke Max and say woof to Wolfie before we were off again. This time with the children to the Savoie where Rupert is researching an article for The Times. This gave us an excuse to come back to one of my favourite places in the …

When I went to collect Leo from school today he ran at me, threw his arms around me and started giggling hysterically. As this is something he often does, I didn’t pay any attention. We left school, went to the park, chatted to friends and then came ho …

Which was worse – facing the needle, or her husband afterwards? Helena Frith Powell grits her teeth and goes for the face freeze   Wednesday, midday “You’re not going to get any Botox done, are you?” my husband, Rupert, asks as I leave the house t …

It was the Greek philosopher Heraclitus who said that ‘no man can step into the same river twice, for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you’. I had hoped that when Carla showed up for the state visit to England that she might have brought a bit of …

Looking eternally young is every woman’s Holy Grail — and we spend millions in pursuit of it. So can anything truly banish those wrinkles? The author of a new book sought out experts around the world to find the answer…   Ageing is something of …

Never mind the arrival of the Daily Mail in the region, the big news yesterday was that Louis has a girlfriend. “She’s called Elisa. They even kissed on the lips,” Leo told us when he came home from school. He was more scandalised than my mother was wh …

Suddenly there is no more time for Grey’s Anatomy or the Wham! revival. The serialisation of To Hell in High Heels may happen as early as next week (after a dramatic bidding war between the Mail and the Sunday Times, as usual the Mail won), I am about …

I have had one of those days when nothing goes right. I go to grab something and break a nail (newly manicured I might add, I painted them last night before I fell asleep with the new Laura Mercier colour), I go to use a stapler and there are no staple …

Yes more evidence, if any more evidence was needed, that women get what Sugar in the film Some Like it Hot calls “the fuzzy end of the lollipop”. Rupert was reading a blog today on The Guardian website by a thirty-seven-year-old man who was complaining …

So it’s finally happened. Well I say finally, she is only seven, but it was only a matter of time. Bea has a boyfriend. She came home yesterday from the leisure centre where French schoolchildren spend half-term if they’re not skiing glowing with the n …

I have just read the sort of story that makes me want to weep. In fact I am having to concentrate on not weeping. A man is being held in Italy for the murder of his two sons aged 12 and 14. He threw them down a 60-foot well in 2006. Their bodies were d …

So the international conspiracy to keep me awake goes on. The perpetrators will stop at nothing. Now they have a gang of highly-trained mice that at 5.30am every morning scuttle back and forth across the roof. It sounds like there are 50 of them racing …

This week I felt the full force of the French educational system. Olivia had some homework about the origins of the French flag, Marianne and other French national symbols. If I had been a contestant on ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ I would have been …

One of the most common complaints I hear from harassed housewifes and mothers is that they don’t have the time to do any exercise because they are with the children all day. I have great news. A young child is the perfect exercise tool. I present you w …

Last night we went to the ballet to see Swan Lake, performed by the Kiev Ballet at a venue called The Zenith in Montpellier. My suspicions should have been roused when the tops of our water bottles were confiscated by security guards on the way in. Why …

When I was a younger my stepfather would often say that the problem with me is that I am always waiting for a suitcase to show up and solve all my problems. He was referring to a suitcase of money which would magically transform my life. I need that su …

I have just had my first meeting in French. It was a lunch in an Italian restaurant in St Germain with the French publisher of Two Lipsticks and a Lover and the hottest publicist in Paris, hired by the publisher to promote the book. I was of course ter …

It was one of those few moments in life when the reality was better than the fantasy. Yesterday the girls started their ballet classes. I was so nervous about arriving late we were there an hour and a half before the beginning. We wandered around for a …

Johnny Depp has given £1 million to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital for saving his daughter’s life last year. In March 2007 Lily-Rose contracted E-coli poisoning and her kidneys failed. It was touch and go for nine days, but she pulled through. …

Despite paying thousands of euros a year into the French pension and social security system, we are under no illusion that they will give us any money when we’re older and even greyer. So we have been vetting the children. “Which of you will look after …

A teenage bride who came to Leeds for an arranged marriage has been beaten to death during a “prolonged and vicious attack” by her young husband over a three-week period, all with the collaboration of his relations who apparently took an instant dislik …

As Hillary Clinton gets bitter in a televised TV debate with Barack Obama, the singer Amy Winehouse is frolicking on a beach in the Caribbean with her ex-boyfriend. Who do you think does more to further the cause of women? Most would probably say Hilla …

We are home. I spent much of our last day skulking in the woods while my estranged aunt visited the children. As usual, she was two hours late, so by the time she finally arrived my planned “walk” had turned into a mini-marathon, it was pitch-dark outs …

The New Year is traditionally a time for looking forward. But thanks to some old school reports from Shaw House Grammar School for Girls I found at my mother’s house, I have been looking back, all the way back to my teens….. My English report does no …

Yesterday it was Bea’s turn to see Rome. We got off the train and headed straight to the Vatican. Bea wants to be an artist and I thought the Sistine Chapel might inspire her. She is also very keen on religion. We passed a shop with lots of pictures of …

Relaxing, snoozing, reading a book, enjoying a glass of wine by the fire….but that’s just my husband. Me, I am on a train bound for Italy with the three children. As I write (after four and a half hours) they have finally lost the plot and are runnin …

“Are you a goer?” I overheard a man asking at a party the other evening. The man posing the question was my husband. The person he was addressing was my friend and business partner Mary. I agree that with her tight red dress and hair curly as kale she …

“‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In the hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.” This little ditty from the American write …

My journey home was marvellous. We got on the Eurostar at the newly revamped St Pancras Station. When the train stopped I thought we were in Ashford in Kent or at best Lille. Turns out we were at the Gare du Nord. Here at home it is a winter wonderland …

I am pleased to annouce that I am incredibly posh. The reason I know this is that none of my friends have central heating. It is a well known fact that the posher you are, the colder your home is. In fact one of the friends I stayed with in London duri …

While Hamlet was thinking of death, I am thinking only of sleep. Never mind the Diana conspiracy theory, what about the international conspiracy to keep me awake at night? It is now 5.30am and I have given up on sleep for the night. I was woken at 1am …

Back in the 1990s, when I was an energetic young journalist covering Russia and eastern Europe, there emerged the phenomenon of the ‘Biznessman’ or ‘Biznesswoman’. These characters, generally male, would huddle in hotel foyers wearing leather jackets a …

My mother has recently started thinking about ageing. She tells me she would rather be dead than old. It’s a fair point. Having just written a book about ageing I know there aren’t many upsides. One is that the hair on your legs grows at a much slower …

I had my day all planned out. I was going to write my introduction to the French edition of Two Lipsticks and a Lover, finish my article on the Savoie and then take the children to their tennis lesson this afternoon. This was until Leo (aka Spiderman) …

Oh help, how depressing. When I was young my stepfather would always say to me; “You’ll wish you listened to me, I am older and wiser than you and I know better.” Of course I didn’t listen to him, I found listening to anyone extremely tedious and, anyw …

Stefania Prestigiacomo, minister for Equal opportunities in the Italian government, has come up with ten commandments for female happiness: * Consider motherhood a value – it is the greatest experience for women * Follow your childhood dream * Keep fal …

We have just come back from Venice where we were invited to the launch of a joint venture between the estate agents Savills and a local company called Views on Venice. We stayed in a penthouse apartment overlooking the Grand Canal. The weather was amaz …

I have always been fascinated by Nana Mouskouri. She is the singer with the strange name and the big black glasses. I can’t name of any of her songs, but I picked up her book, called simply Memoirs, with a feeling of anticipation. Now I might finally g …

One of the most tragic and memorable moments of any Hardy novel is in Jude the Obscure. Jude’s son, Little Father Time as he is known, strangles his siblings and hangs himself, leaving a note saying “done because we are too menny” (sic). His reasoning …

We decided to stop for lunch at IKEA on our way home from the Savoie. Total madness. I have never seen so many French men desperate for Swedish meatballs. Haven’t they heard of onion soup or croque monsieur? “Mr IKEA must be sitting in his Swiss villa …

Twenty-four hours is a long time in childcare. My husband is back, the kidney infection is in fact a trapped nerve and the children are being saints. I can’t credit myself with their transformation. We have come to stay with our friends Norrie and Mary …

The school holidays have started. They have coincided with my husband being away (funny that) and a kidney infection. A better woman than me would have remained calm, collected and zen. I have never been grumpier. “What’s work?” Olivia asked me yesterd …

OK, so we lost, but it’s only a game. You have my permission to kill anyone who says that. It’s not only a game, it’s the WORLD CUP and we lost, rather unfairly I think. I was in a bar full of French people supporting South Africa. Helllooooo??? Aren’t …

Teenagers, career women, even grandmothers, are going weak-kneed over the ‘come hither’ fly-half Helena Frith Powell October 21 2007, 1:00am, The Sunday Times THIS time last week I had a terrible hangover. I woke up at 6am wondering why my head was thr …

As I sat reading my story in the Daily Telegraph this morning (see www.telegraph.co.uk) and seeing my book plugged at the end it occurred to me that humans are essentially dissatisfied creatures. “I have just realised how lucky we are,” I said to Ruper …

As divorce looks imminent for the Sarkozys, Helena Frith Powell explains why few Frenchwomen condemn her French president Nicolas Sarkozy is finding that Jimmy Goldsmith’s famous dictum – that when you marry your mistress you create a job vacancy – wor …

There is nothing quite like a note telling you it’s time for the school photo to send mothers into a tizzy. Planning for this event started several days ago with negotiations to get Olivia to agree to wear a brown and white dress. There are two reasons …

“Keep it light-hearted,” the producer tells me. “We’ve got a big feature on breast cancer so this item needs to be funny.” The subject of my discussion on Woman’s Hour today is a new book written by a Dutch woman called Dutch women don’t get depressed. …

Bea is ill. She has a “baddie tummy” and I mean really bad. Poor little love has been writhing around in agony, her temperature soaring. But the most astounding effect of her illness has been on those around her. Her best friend and soul-mate Manon spe …

Here follows a conversation between my husband and my son as they lay in bed this morning chatting: “You’ve got very big arms and you’re very strong. Are you scared of anything?” “Mummy.” “Mummy’s not scary. She’s not a witch.” “What about her cloak an …

I have always admired Aung San Suu Kyi. She is not only one of the world’s most elegant and beautiful women, but also one of the most selfless and determined. Here is a woman who could have lived as a free woman with her husband and sons. Instead she c …

We got back yesterday evening from a perfect press trip. I did write and tell you all about it but the blog seems to have vanished. I can only assume the tourist board of the Var, keen to avoid yet more visitors to the magical islands of Porquerolles a …

Reviewed Helena Frith Powell My favourite part of the film Four Weddings and a Funeral is when Andie MacDowell’s character catalogues all her lovers, one by one, with a short description of each. Hugh Grant’s character listens with an air of bemusement …

I am back from a two-day whirlwind trip to London. The launch party for Ciao Bella was much more fun than Hell’s Kitchen, although that wouldn’t be too difficult. It even made it into the Peter Kay column of the Daily Mail, albeit a tiny story, right a …

I am not a big fan of reality TV shows, but as this one involves dinner cooked by a three-star Michelin chef and his two remaining celebrities, I am going. I doubt very much I will even get on camera, unless of course I dare to complain about the food …

So the police in Portugal are now making the contents of Kate McCann’s diary public. In it she says she is struggling to cope with three young children and that her husband leaves most of the housework to her. They are citing this as a possible motive …

I have always prided myself on the fact that Rupert and I have never had an argument in front of the children. I think after almost 10 years of marriage this is incredibly good going. But, I’m sorry to report, parental truth number six is that you will …

“Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds; and until we know what has been or will be the peculiar combination of outward with inward facts, which constitute a man’s critical actions, it will be better not to think ourselves wise about …

“She did it,” a friend of mine living in Surrey just told me on the phone. “Kate McCann is guilty. You should take that Madeleine thing off your blog. No one around here believes she is innocent.” Kate McCann has been hurled into a Kafkaesque nightmare …

Forget the twinkle in his eye, his smile or even the size of his wallet – the way a woman determines if a man is good relationship material is in the first kiss. As the Mail reported yesterday, scientists this week claimed that women have learned to us …

Olivia and I have been listening to a CD of African music. One of the songs begins with a quote from Nelson Mandela. “I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities …

I have a new ironing lady. She is around four foot tall and very pretty but she refuses to do the sheets or put the clothes away. If I ever complain about the quality of her ironing she shoots me a stern look and tells me to be quiet. My new ironing la …

I once read somewhere that when children start killing children it is the end of the world. In Liverpool last week an 11-year-old-boy was gunned down as he played in a park, apparently by a 13-year-old youth. When I was in England last week it seemed t …

Last night at dinner Olivia asked Leo and Bea how many children they were going to have. “Three,” said Bea. “Called Manon, Rupert and Helena.” “What if you have three boys?” asked Olivia “Doesn’t matter,” said Bea. Leo rather worryingly announced he wa …

Here is one of my favourite poems by Dorothy Parker: By the time you swear you’re his, Shivering and sighing, And he vows his passion is Infinite, undying Lady, make a note of this: One of you is lying. The reason this came to mind today was not that I …

My mother has lived in Devon for almost twenty years but moves to Italy in September. I am sad not to have a reason to come here any more. Despite the dreadful weather (the sun has been out for a total of seven minutes during the last four days which I …

My husband thinks my favourite haunt is a second-hand designer clothes shop in Covent Garden. It is a marvellous place, where you can pick up secondhand designer kit for next to nothing, along with shoes, handbags and other accessories. What he doesn’t …

One of my favourite films ever is Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It is the only reason Olivia was originally named Holly. Once we moved to France we changed her name. In fact I had doubts straight after the initial euphoria of the birth. And in French Holly s …

“Come to lunch,” he said. “My wife is away.” Whereas when we last saw each other twenty years ago this might have been an invitation to spend the afternoon in bed, now that we’re middle-aged it was not my body Heathcliff was after, but my children. His …

My stepchildren have now been here for four weeks. They are charming, sweet and I love them to bits. But they are also fairly useless around the house. It is only after four weeks that they have finally worked out one end of the dishwasher from the oth …

It is lovely to be home. Trying to sleep in my hotel in London was like trying to sleep through an episode of NYPD Blues with the volume turned up to max. All I could hear outside were crimes being committed and police giving chase. The St Giles hotel …

My arrival home has been dominated by cricket. My stepson Hugo has been watching the test match and Leo has become very interested. “One day you’ll play cricket for England,” Rupert said to him this morning. “Yes, now,” said Leo. “You can’t play cricke …

It is three months ago since Madeleine was abducted as she slept beside her twin brother and sister in the McCann’s holiday apartment in Portugal. Gerry, her father, has just been to the US to publicise her disappearance. He is said to be keen to go ba …

I am happily installed in the Hotel Alla Noce in Limone, a town on Lake Garda. I am here to finish my next book and have chosen this place due to a gene they have that means they live longer. Apparently ten per cent of the population is between 100 and …

My laptop and I have been reunited and are on our way to Lake Garda where we are going to spend a week finishing To Hell in High Heels. I have left Rupert alone with five children. It was six, but one of them went back home today, so he really has noth …

Yesterday Banaz Mahmod’s father and uncle were jailed for life for her “honour” killing. It emerged that not only was the poor girl garrotted and buried in a suitcase, but that she was subjected to a two-hours of rape and torture beforehand. Her uncle …

At her christening when Olivia was only a few weeks old Mrs Miller, a friend of ours and wife to Olivia’s godfather, took her in her arms. “This child is a control freak,” she said. Mrs Miller at the time was running Goldman Sachs legal division global …

Summer is really here. I know this not just because it is extremely hot, but my house is full of children. In addition to the usual three I have my stepchildren Hugo and Julia here, along with Julia’s best friend Annabelle. My three-year-old son has ad …

Home at last. Two things hit me as I walked onto my terrace; the sunshine and the sound of the cicadas. Both comforting sounds that mean heat. I am very happy to be home. My dog is alive and well, as is the cat. So far there are no nasty shocks in the …

So my Swedish fantasy has been fulfilled. This does not involve blond hunks or even meatballs; but my children playing in the Swedish woods and more importantly leaving the woods with dark blue mouths on account of eating too many blueberries. The weat …

After three days of trawling around various sights, museums and shops in Stockholm there is one clear winner. She has strange red hair, odd stockings and a monkey called Herr Nilsson. Yes, it’s Pippi Longstocking, who as far as I can see is the most en …

Today is the last day of school. You would think the children would all be jolly happy and behave beautifully but no, this morning from the moment they woke up to the moment we left them in the care of their deliriously happy (I wonder why?) teachers, …

Yesterday I had the agony of watching Tim Henman almost lose at Wimbledon again. How many years have I been putting myself through this? And today there’s more to come as he goes into the second round. I have a vast pile of ironing and will steady my n …

When I was in London last I met Heathcliff’s wife. You may remember Heathcliff. He was the first love of my life and we were recently put in touch through a mutual friend. I have yet to see him again after more than 20 years but I have met the mother o …

If you don’t have children you have probably never had to deal with head-lice. They are more irritating than unwanted house-guests and seem to stay longer. My step-daughter first got them aged five and is only now (aged 13) finally getting rid of them. …

Today is Olivia’s birthday. She is eight. It is hard to believe that eight years ago today I was at the Crowborough birthing centre, lying in a tepid bath saying to my friend Doc “this really hurts.” Oh the naivety of first-time mothers who shun drugs. …

There are many things I worry about. Not fitting into a size 10 pair of trousers, going for a swim in someone’s pool and leaving one of my hair extensions in it, upsetting the few relations that are still speaking to me by writing about them, grey hair …

A beautiful young girl is raped, strangled with a bootlace and buried in a suitcase in a garden. This is not the act of some random psycho; the persecution and murder of this young woman was arranged and carried out by her own family. Twenty-year-old B …

When we were in Paris last week Rupert and I met a nice couple of child psychologists who told us that our children are made up of 50% us and 50% our parents. We were amazed by this fact, having always thought that our children were a product of us alo …

A story in today’s Daily Mail made we want to throw up. Zakia Zaki, a 35-year-old Afghan journalist, was shot dead as she slept with her 20-month-old baby at her home north of Kabul. In the same room was her three-year-old toddler. Her four other child …

I am a failure as a mother. Aged almost eight Olivia has yet to pick up a harp, unlike Ophelia, a five-year old girl who goes to a small school in Chelsea around the corner from where I’m staying. Last night I had a conversation about bedtimes with the …

So Mother’s Day was good except that I got off at the wrong metro and then had to walk about two miles to the hotel. By the time I got there my feet hurt so I changed shoes to go walking in the Tuileries Gardens and then to the Virgin Megastore as I ne …

Today is Mother’s Day in France. All over the country responsible children will be taking their mothers and grandmothers out to lunch. It is the worst day of the year to try to get a table in your favourite restuarant. They are booked up weeks in advan …

You have to wonder where our priorities have gone when two babies are left to die in over-heated cars by their “stressed” mothers in one week. We have all done stupid things. I once forgot I had three children shortly after Leo was born and almost left …

Nudity seems to be a bit of a theme at the moment. Last night I was about to get in the bath when it started pouring with rain. Wearing nothing but flip-flops and some hair extensions I rush out to get the washing in. Wolfie the dog is more excited by …

We had an unusual guest to stay as soon as Marguerite had packed her beret and headed off home. He is a laughter yoga coach called Jeffrey, whom I met on Laguna Beach (see blog in March). This is a man who spends most of his days laughing. The Laughter …

Our weekend with Marguerite is going well so far. She has got used to us wearing knotted handkerchiefs on our heads and eating nothing but jelly and baked beans. Bea had a bad go on her new pink bike. In fact she was complaining about how bad a bike-ri …

This weekend is a long weekend in France. In fact, officially it’s not, the government cancelled the holiday on Monday two years ago but as is the norm here no one took a blind bit of notice and so everything is shut, including the schools. Even Chanta …

Olivia was home sick yesterday. She caught a cold by pouring cold water all over herself and then getting on the air-conditioned bus to come home after the school outing. I did tell her not to, but of course she took no notice. There are some days I fe …

There were unidentified objects flying through the air, the heat was almost unbearable, the natives restless and noisy. This was before we even got off the coach. A few weeks ago Olivia volunteered me as a ‘parent-in-charge’ for a school outing to an A …

“Mummy,”said Olivia yesterday. “Do you buy the presents that Father Christmas brings?” This was too direct a question to ignore, or skirt around. What would you have done? She is seven years old. She has two younger siblings who passionately believe in …

An article in the Daily Mail today tells us that men are now too scared to flatter women or to flirt with them. Apparently in our PC times a compliment is all too easily seen as an insult. So a ‘you look nice today’ can be miscontrued as either ‘I want …

“You are superman,” said Leo as Rupert kissed him goodnight last night. “What’s mummy?” “She’s a princess.” It is true that aged three your world is quite simple. Mummy and daddy are perfect, superheroes really do exist and everyone loves you. I rememb …

So my first outfit is deemed “too muttony” by my husband. His comment on the second one is “you look like you’re going to a hen party.” Finally he agrees the white linen trousers, white cotton shirt and red cardigan will be fine. And the shoes of cours …

Tomorrow we have been invited to lunch at a friend’s house and among the other guests is the editor of Vogue. My question is this; what does one wear to lunch with the editor of Vogue? The whole thing is too terrifying for words. Do I try to go fashion …

Normally I look at the Daily Mail website every morning to see if my latest article has made it in. Now all I am interested in is news about Maddy, the little girl that was abducted Thursday from a resort in the Algarve. I can’t think of a news story t …

So it’s all over for Sego. Even more disastrous than the hair-do is the news that Olivia is voting Sarko. On hearing this her godfather Jonathan, a keen Francophile who knows much more about these sorts of things than I do, pronounced Sego “yesterday’s …

So I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for my expert commentary on the Sego/Sarko debate last night (considering I am a prize-winning political commentator see Glass half empty or half full blog). Well here it is. Madame de Fontenay whom I interviewed for …

Here’s what I like about being home: Seeing the children Bea singing along to Mika as she falls asleep Olivia telling me she’s going to vote for Segolene Royal “because she’s a girl, do you want me to vote for a boy?” Telling Leo we can’t buy Batman sw …

I am at the airport on the first leg of my Jamaica trip. There is a mad woman next to me muttering to herself about her passport and where she might have put it. What is it about travelling that turns people into lunatics? For all I know she might be p …

They say that women of a certain age discover either God or gardening. What a choice. Why not fast cars or even faster men? Diamonds or sexy underwear? Lying around reading Elle eating chocolates all day and/or telephone sex with Colin Firth? For me I …

As I was doing my sun salutes this morning while swaying along to Mika, the new preferred album in the household which has knocked Take That off their number one spot after a record three months, my husband was recovering from a night of partying with …

Never mind the vinaigrette, last night I felt totally overcome with an overwhelming and heavy sense of responsibility. I looked around the table at my three children. They were all happily eating, arguing over who should have laid out the napkins and w …

The children came home for lunch today. Accompanying them was Olivia’s best friend before she met the other Olivia, Clemence Barre. For some reason she is never known simply by her christian name, notwithstanding the fact that as far as I know there is …

It is Monday morning and as I start my stressful commute down the stairs to my office overlooking the pool, I am reminded of all those poor people stuck on trains, buses, tubes and trams. But I have a cunning plan to make their morning commute less pai …

I have finally worked out what it is that women don’t like about men. This revelation can be indirectly attributed to Leonardo who was found by a German at 11pm in the lobby of the hotel. “Please take better care of your children at this time,” read a …

The most distinguished Englishman to visit Zermatt was Edward Whymper, famous for being the first person to climb the Matterhorn. He made eight attempts to climb it, only succeeding when he realised he was about to be beaten by an Italian. He now lies …

We are in Zermatt on a skiing holiday with the children organised by a company called Powder Byrne. The concept is brilliant. They take your children away to places with lots of other children and people like a very nice man called Ed who like looking …

The children have become very interested in who is related to whom and how it all works. Bea and Manon have been told that although they look and act like twins, they actually aren’t. “Yes we are,” Bea told me this morning. “We have the same pink leota …

This morning was one of those mornings that make me even happier than I usually am that we moved here. For some reason the children were nice to me, and to each other. Even Max the cat was spared his normal morning tail-pulling from Leonardo. I took th …

An eventful weekend, which began with me driving into the back of someone while gazing at a Ferrari. I don’t know what it is about red Ferraris that get me so excited, maybe it’s genetic. Cars normally leave me cold. Anyway, there we were, me and the c …

It was one of those calls I’ll never forget. We were just finishing off lunch when my mobile phone rang. It was a UK mobile number. I wonder who this could be, I thought. But actually deep down I already knew. “Hi Helena, its Heathcliff.” We chatted fo …

Apart from the pasta, the most exciting thing to happen to me in Monaco was almost being run over by Prince Albert. I was wandering up a little road towards the palace when a policeman shot round the corner on a motorbike and motioned to me to get out …

Last night we were watching the BBC adaptation of Pride & Prejudice. Colin Firth (Darcy) was in the bath. In marched a servant to pour hot water on him. “Why can’t he have a bath on his own?” demanded Bea. “Look, he’s all grown-up enough. I don’t need …

Yesterday we had a picnic at our almond grove. That makes it sound very grand, which it’s not. We have around sixty almond trees and a little hut, known as a mazet. There is about an acre of land with a river at the bottom of it and a vineyard lining o …

I am pleased to report that unlike me, Olivia has fallen in love for the first time and he actually likes her too. The object of her affections is Quentin, brother of Maud, Leo’s girlfriend who apparently does love him after all (see Parental Truths Nu …

Spring is here. I know because the sun is shining, the flowers are blooming and a yellow and black salamander keeps falling into the pool. We are on constant pool-watch and have already rescued him three times. We even put some bleach in to try to dete …

Although some things in life are entirely predictable (like Air France losing my bag which did happen as I said it would) children are at times brilliantly unpredictable. As I stood waiting for my luggage which I already knew wouldn’t arrive Olivia bar …

I am trying my best to fit in to LA life. I have rented a red convertible mustang, bought some gawdy gold shoes and even went to a Pilates class last night. My big hair and Smart-Lipo recovery corset also help. But still things are not quite right. The …

I think if I lived in LA I would never need to go to the movies (as we like to call them in downtown LA); I would just amuse myself watching people in the street. I only arrived four hours ago but I have seen more to make me laugh than you do in downto …

The week after Britney Spears ended up with no hair, I ended up with twice as much. At Rodolfo Valentin’s salon in New York I have been treated to his famous “hair infusions.” They are an advanced form of hair extensions that don’t damage your hair but …

How often have you been to a hairdresser’s and had access to your emails? Well, New York is ideal if you’re an e-mail addict (see below blog). Here I am writing this blog from the comfort of my seat in the exclusive Rodolfo Valentin salon on Madison Av …

The other night when Rupert was away and the two smaller children were in bed, Olivia (aged seven) and I had what people rather nauseatingly call “quality” time together. We sat in a rose-oil scented bath, both wearing shower caps, and discussed life’s …

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 every …

I know now why surgeons wear green. It’s to match their faces. I have just got back from “scrubbing in” as they call it in Grey’s Anatomy. I am at the La Prairie Clinic just outside Montreux researching my next book and having a perfect time. This plac …

As far as I can make out, the only upside to flying is you might bump into Ralph Fiennes in the loo (Daily Mail article). I am at Heathrow, dishevelled and grumpy, having been put through something they call a “random personal search”. As I stood in th …

I am often accused of writing about stereotypes. Sometimes I get really nasty letters from grumpy readers who call me things they can’t spell like bigoted and offensive. But the fact is that people from different parts of the world are DIFFERENT. Howev …

I am in Paris filming for Tonight with Trevor McDonald (ITV 8pm this evening if you’re bored). As it’s the school holidays I am with my daughter Bea (aged 6) and my stepdaughter Julia (aged 12). I decided that I would introduce them to the museums of P …

This is a new series, and I’m sorry if I’m boring those of you without children but one day you may have them or you will at least know someone who does have them and so you can warn them. If you don’t I’m sure the same applies to pets. The other day i …

This evening we were having a late dinner alone (the children had already eaten) when Olivia came rushing into the kitchen. “Please come downstairs and watch the film with us, it’s scary, there’s an evil man on the roof.” The film she was talking about …

We’ve had a lovely weekend. Yesterday wandering around IKEA (a rather strange Swedish habit) and Montpellier. Montpellier is a fantastic city; it always seems to be sunny and there is lots to do. The only glitch was trying to visit the newly re-vamped …

Yesterday I spent the day in Toulouse with Denise Epstein, the daughter of Irene Nemirovsky (see ‘We’ve never had it so good’ blog below). Ever since I heard about Irene being carted off Auschwitz in front of her two daughters and read her brilliant bo …

Olivia is at home ill and watching Grey’s Anatomy. There is a girl in the episode she’s watching who suffers from spontaneous orgasms (sounds better than flu). Olivia has just asked me what’s wrong with her. “She keeps having sort of, well, fits,” I te …

Two days ago Olivia said to me; “Mummy, you’re never ill.” Well, now I am. I feel like death. My head hurts, my throat hurts, in fact my whole body hurts. I am constantly coughing and sneezing. My husband has had the same thing and now two of the three …

I have just been to collect the children at school and see that something called a Mammobile is parked in the main square. This is, I assume, a travelling mammogram that will test women for breast cancer. Personally I would rather be run over by it tha …

I am reading Suite Francaise at the moment, as good a book as I have ever read. It is about France during the second-world war, written by Irene Nemirovsky, a Russian-Jew who lived in France and was carted off to Auschwitz in front of her two daughters …

Carrying on the lust theme, I heard an interesting definition of sex as we drove home from our weekend in Uzes on Sunday. Bea (pictured left) was busy telling Olivia that she had had sex with her best friend Manon. As you can imagine, I stopped map-rea …

It is Sunday morning and we are in Uzès for the 14th annual truffle fest. This is a magical place, a medieval town in the hills about half an hour from Avignon. As usually happens when we travel anywhere in the direction of Provence I have decided I wa …

Here is a question for all you Francophiles: Can you name the person voted France’s most popular photographer in two separate polls? Henri Cartier Bresson, perhaps? Jacques Henri Lartigue? Robert Capa? Wrong, wrong, wrong. The answer is David Hamilton, …

This week’s big news, apart from Big Bother, is the fact that a high-flying City worker is expecting her eighth baby. “Supermum” cried the headlines as everyone marvelled at this woman’s capacity to breed and earn more money in a month than most of us …

I am meant to be working but instead am watching Marat Safin in the Australian Open. I am praying he will win. I have long been a fan of Safin’s. This is not surprising as he is tall, well-built, good-looking and Russian (what’s not to like?), although …

Looking at my dire amazon rating today, I decided that making enough money to buy a penthouse in Rome from my books may not be that realistic. So I wrote to my aunt in Rome asking her to forgive me and telling her how marvellous she is. (See ‘Publish a …

My husband is away at the moment. Most women might take this as an ideal opportunity to don matching underwear and go out in search of excitement. Not moi. For me it’s an ideal opportunity to stay at home, wear my old pyjamas and go to bed early with a …

With a Swedish mother, Italian father, English husband and a home in France, Helena Frith Powell wonders which traditions to follow for her family Christmas   I have been recently reunited with my father, and my parents are coming to our house in …

Napoleon was wrong. It is the French who are a nation of shopkeepers, not the English. Here in France there are specific shops for every item; here one doesn’t live in Tescoland. You would as soon buy your beef from the supermarket as your lingerie. Th …

Has France fallen in love with a new mistress? It very much looks like that from and not just because the readers of France’s FHM have voted Ségolène Royal the sixth sexiest woman in the world. Ségolène Royal looks likely not only to be the first femal …

The first school meeting I ever went to was about food. We had been living in France for a year and my daughter was in the nursery school section of the local primary school. “We are here to organise a collective morning snack for the children, it will …

The most popular look with the French women in the village I live in is an easy one to copy. Take an old pair of slippers, preferably weather-beaten and worn as you have spent years walking to the bakery in them, a totally shapeless grey dress and a di …

A report published last week by the Institute for Public Policy Research states that Britain is suffering from a baby gap of 92,000 babies a year as women put off having children because of the rising cost of childcare. Six years ago my husband and I w …

There has been much discussion about the best formation – some favour a 2-2-3, others think we should operate with a lone striker. There has also been much debate about the tactics – do we begin slowly or set a blistering pace that the others can’t mat …

  Helena Frith Powell never knew her eccentric Italian father, Benedetto Benedetti, when she was growing up.Her mother left him – and Italy – for a man who was to become Helena’s stepfather when she was just three years old. But when Helena was 14 …

At first Helena Frith Powell was stunned by her estranged father’s open attitude to sex, then she learnt to appreciate it “Testicles,” replied my father. “Oh yes, and I suppose there are breasts for pudding?” “If you wish, my dear, I know a very good l …

Helena Frith Powell didn’’t know her Italian father until she was 14. When she found him he initiated her into whole new Latin attitude to life   As soon as we leave Italy, my memory of Rome and my real father fades. I start to believe my father i …

Helena Frith Powell persuades French women to reveal the key to dimple-free skin I am on a beach in Corsica looking at a French woman’s bottom. It is pert, round and deliciously tanned. At the risk of being arrested, I move a little closer. This is an …

She’s 52, a mother of four, and possibly the next president of France. Helena Frith Powell analyses the allure of Ségolène Royal In France, being over 50 is no excuse not to be sexy and Ségolène Royal – tipped by some to be the first female president o …

When she realised the full extent of the love affair between French women and their very expensive underwear Helena Frith Powell was astonished. Then she was seduced We spend the rest of the journey talking. B, as I will call him, tells me he is an MP …

The Websters already have two under the age of five and would like another. They cannot afford this, either. They already pay £1,500 a month in childcare and when Claire goes back to work part-time, this will increase by £500. In a couple of years’ tim …

French women eclipse all as the epitome of female perfection, but they work so hard at it they’’re no fun. For that you need British girls, says Helena Frith Powell   But it is not only French-women’s famed chic that sets them apart from the rest …

These women believe they have found a way… Helena Frith Powell We were sitting in a restaurant on the Mediterranean last summer enjoying a glass of chilled rosé when I put the question. “How about another child?” I asked. “I’d rather have another bot …