The December Issue

by 4 Comments  

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 meetings with designers as well as her relationship with her long-suffering creative director Grace.

I loved it. It was a great insight into that world, and it inspired me to go for bigger and better things on my magazine, as well as possibly a haircut. But I can’t really see why it would be interesting to anyone who is not mad about journalism or fashion or both.

The most encouraging consequence of us watching it though is that the girls have decided to create their very own December Issue, to come out for my birthday. I have not been allowed to see any of it yet but they tell me it has 42 pages so far and will have articles and fashion and advertisements, just like Vogue.

And it has an Anna and a Grace just like Vogue too, Bea being Anna and Olivia taking on the role of Grace. Their other staff member is Leo, who does drawings and stories. I feel the beginnings of a publishing empire coming on….

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2010


4 thoughts on The December Issue

  • What an excellent idea as your birthday present Helena, so personal.
    And, just an idea to develop it, maybe your children could visit the office with a video camera and talk to your team on the magazine for a short clip to upload to your blog?! Then we can be told how much of a role model Ms Wintour is for you in your own editorship!
    I really enjoyed The September Issue, despite not being a journalist or a fashionista…. it was interesting seeing the dynamics of different personalities. Thought Grace was the real star.
    Catherine

  • Thanks for a tip – that movie sounds promising.

    Reading your blog today made me smile once again.
    There is regularly something funny, whitty or clever you write, which makes me read your blog. I follow more or less three blogs. The other two persons are living in France.

    Two months or so for Love in a warm climate?
    Are you coming to Europe, by any chance, to promote your book? You should.
    Nina

  • I love Ms Wintour style. I think you’ll look lovely with that haircut. Does she ever smile though…?

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

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

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. Helena is also working on a thriller called Thin Ice that will be published in spring 2021 as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

Her latest non-fiction work Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles came out in hardback in 2016 and in paperback in April 2018.

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

Bibliography

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

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

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

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

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

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

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

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

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

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

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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