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In bizness

4th December 2007 by Helena 6 Comments  

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 and tell me about their money-making schemes. They didn’t make much sense to me, but I assume they paid off. Central Europe has been transformed and Russia seems to produce a new billionaire every day. So, ten years later, I have decided to become a Biznesswoman. I’m not sure that I will wear a leather coat or huddle in a hotel, but faced with a husband who thinks that writing books on wine and water is a money-making scam and children who insist on horse-riding, tennis and piano lessons – and that’s just on a Wednesday – there was no option.

Renew RetreatsMy first ‘bizness’ is probably the one I am most excited about. It is called Renew Retreats. I came up with the idea soon after finishing my latest book, To Hell in High Heels. Never mind hell; I was taken to bed with a kidney infection, felt run down and ready to die. I looked around for a spa retreat that would rejuvenate me and found nothing that I fancied. So today with a few of the most inspirational women I met during my research for the book, including Tina Richards, a top London holistic dermatologist and Anna Cooper, a jet-setting yoga guru and psychotherapist, together with my friend and neighbour Mary Lesault, we have come up with the ideal five-day spa retreat.

Ten lucky women will gather at Le Couvent in Hérépian in the first week of May and be treated to massages (one rather exotic one involving a Kansu bowl and warm oils which I have tried and it is mind-blowingly good), yoga, one-to-one dermatological consultations, nutritional advice and inspirational talks by moi on, among other topics, how to unlock your inner French woman and anti-ageing tips. For more information you can visit our glorious pink website.

Sainte CecileThe other ‘bizness’ is more prosaic, but may prove more profitable. After seven splendid summers in Sainte Cecile, we have decided to take the children on a Grand Tour of Europe next year. This will include visiting my mother near Rome, my cousin in Stockholm, Bea’s best friend Norrie in the Savoie and anybody else willing to give us a bed for the night. To help pay for this jaunt we are going to rent out the house for the summer. I hope it is a good idea. If anyone you know would like to stay in an old stone farmhouse with a swimming pool and only cicadas for company (as well as Max the cat and Wolfie the dog obviously), you can find out more at www.creme-de-langeudoc.com by clicking this link.

Now where did I put that leather jacket? Maybe I can find a pink one….

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Women, Work, blog --> Tagged With: bizness

6 thoughts on In bizness

  • Jules Ritter says:
    5th December 2007 at 8:44 am

    Spot on H. The only thing I have noticed about ageing is that my make-up/toilet bag gets bigger by the year. I am armed to the point of addiction. I even have a two-phase eye make-up remover which beggars belief as to the utility of the second phase – eye laser surgery? I am not giving in without a fight and when the products refuse to work I will happily lie down under the surgeon’s knife and talk him through it.
    I had dinner last night with a beautiful Swiss woman in her sixtys who scoffed several times throughout the evening about face lifts and botox and she could. She had one of those amazing oval faces with large beautiful brown eyes and a head of thick gray hair which she wears in a ponytail. I, on the other hand, have not been so genetically blessed and so will go down kicking and squeeze everything I can out of what is out there on offer. Julesritter.com

  • Jonathan Miller says:
    5th December 2007 at 10:17 am

    What about us blokes?

  • helena says:
    5th December 2007 at 1:54 pm

    Hello Mr M
    We are in fact planning a ‘blokes’ or couples retreat as you are not the first to ask. It will be next year some time, I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile two places have already gone on the May one!
    Hx

  • Muriel Paul says:
    5th December 2007 at 5:04 pm

    Your spa sounds wonderful. I could use it right now. We have had 10 days of temperatures colder than minus 10 Celsius(that is the high) and no end in sight. Perhaps you could visit Canada to promote your new book and enjoy this weather as well.

  • Jacqui U says:
    7th December 2007 at 8:06 pm

    Have linked to the Renew website a couple of times, and each time it hung my whole PC and I had to crash and reboot!

    Think it needs looking at…..

    I was curious because we live a couple of minutes away from Le Couvent in Hérépian.

  • helena says:
    8th December 2007 at 1:31 pm

    Hi Jacqui – how annoying, I have forwarded your message to my webmaster. The couvent has its own website too, http://www.couventherepian.com
    Hx

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

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

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. 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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