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Gainfully employed once more….

12th June 2012 by Helena 11 Comments  

Yes, I know I have been annoying you all by smugly describing my life as a lady of leisure and telling you all how I was planning not to work until at least September BUT….I have a job. In fact I have a dream job. I am editorial director of (and partner in) a gorgeous, glossy, high-end fashion magazine based here in Abu Dhabi called Masquerade magazine. Check out the website www.masquerademag.com.
The job came from the most unlikely of sources. A few months ago, before the demise of M magazine was even a twinkle in management’s eye, Leo’s favourite football coach, an Arsenal fan (poor thing) called Andrei told me he had a friend in Abu Dhabi who had set up a fashion magazine. I didn’t think much of it because most of the magazines here are hardly quality products. And I couldn’t imagine that I would not have seen it if it were. Then I met Andrei’s friend and he showed me the mag. I was bowled over by its professionalism, quality and also by his ambition and vision. “I want to set up the Condé Nast of the Middle East,” he told me. I was sold immediately.
I have brought the lovely Jemma who used to work with me at M along with me and together we are plotting the next few issues. At the moment Masquerade is quarterly, but it will go bi-monthly from next year and monthly from 2014.
It is strange, much as I loved having time off and being a lady of leisure I could see, even after only a couple of weeks, how dull it would eventually become. I am really enjoying coming up with feature ideas, planning the future of the magazine and working with freelancers I had to let go unceremoniously when M was closed.
So no more lady of leisure, but I am a happier lady, and very much looking forward to helping to create the Condé Nast of the Middle East.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2012


Filed Under: Abu Dhabi, Work, blog --> Tagged With: employed, gainfully

11 thoughts on Gainfully employed once more....

  • jh says:
    18th June 2012 at 12:42 am

    congrats helena. I knew it wouldn’t take long. and good to hear you’ve taken jemma along with you.

  • Helena says:
    18th June 2012 at 12:46 am

    Many thanks jh, hope all is well with you!

  • Janet says:
    18th June 2012 at 2:12 pm

    You may want to proofread that last post and decide if you really have ‘bought’ or ‘brought’ Gemma with you.

  • Helena says:
    18th June 2012 at 7:14 pm

    Thanks Janet, done. Jemma, not Gemma…..!

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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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