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Frangleterre

15th January 2007 by Helena Leave a Comment  

FrangleterreIt is generally accepted that if you ask to get into bed with someone once and they refuse, it’s seen as impolite to insist. But during his Normandy upbringing French Prime Minister Guy Mollet must have missed out on this tiny piece of social etiquette. The newspapers today are full of the story of how on September 10th 1956 he suggested to his British counterpart Anthony Eden that Britain and France form a union. Eden turned down his generous offer. Two weeks later, undaunted by the first rejection, Mollet suggested France join the British Commonwealth. This was also rejected by Eden.

(Click here to read about it.)

But the fact is that today the Channel Tunnel has achieved what Mollet did not. Wandering around the British food section of my local supermarket popping baked beans into my shopping trolley, there is not a French voice to be heard. Last time I went shopping in Knightsbridge it felt like most of France’s 300,000 exiles to the UK had congregated there.

England has had a foodie revolution, spurred on by criticism and superior cuisine from our French neighbours. They in turn have adopted our political habits; in Sarko they have their own Thatcher. In Ségo their own Blair.

I wonder who got the better deal? Mollet, a lifelong Marxist, must be turning in his grave.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Britain, France, blog --> Tagged With: frangleterre

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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