The Gabianese Nightingale

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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 is possibly the most charmless place I have ever been to (and I include our local rubbish tip in that). The location (just off Tottenham Court Road) has nothing to recommend it. But Richard & Judy went well, once I was able to get a word in.

Sing it MariaYesterday we had a lunch party. Among the guests were an opera singer and her opera director husband. We were treated to an aria from Don Giovanni in the garage. This is a woman who sings regularly at the Royal Opera House and La Scala. What she must have thought of our garage I dread to think. But she couldn’t have had a more enthusiastic audience. The girls were totally mad about her and kept nagging her to sing again. The opera singer is also into bird-watching and was thrilled to see our swallows who have now quadrupled in number. I fear we will have to move out soon to make room for their extended family.

Last night Bea went to bed singing unrecognisable arias at the top of her voice. Olivia got up this morning and immediately reached for some binoculars. She has been looking for birds ever since. It’s such a joy to have friends that are a better influence on one’s children than oneself.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


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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 working on a thriller called Thin Ice that will be published in 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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