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The usual pattern

28th July 2007 by Helena 1 Comment  

index_01.jpgIt is three months ago since Madeleine was abducted as she slept beside her twin brother and sister in the McCann’s holiday apartment in Portugal. Gerry, her father, has just been to the US to publicise her disappearance. He is said to be keen to go back home to England to rebuild their lives while Madeleine’s mother is reportedly in decline.

Kate McCann refuses to leave Praia da Luz where their daughter vanished. According to her mother she is no better than the day their little girl vanished and just keeps repeating “I need Madeleine back”.

When this story first broke I couldn’t sleep for thinking about it. Now I think about it a lot less. But of course for her parents the nightmare is as vivid as it was on day one. I suppose I hoped things would get better for them, that they would start to get on with their lives.

All of us imagine what we would do in their situation. Would we crack up or would we cope? For the sake of the other children you would have to go on. But it would be nearly impossible.

A friend of mine said the other day that in all probability Maddy was taken by a paedophile and killed within the first twelve hours. “That’s the usual pattern,” she said. Just the thought that there are people out there who can commit such heinous acts of cruelty is enough to keep me awake at night. In the UK now a well-known actor is being prosecuted for downloading images from the internet of seven-year old girls being tortured and sexually abused.

All we can do is hope against hope that Madeleine has been abducted by someone desperate for a daughter and not an evil pervert. Let’s hope she hasn’t followed the “usual pattern” and that this unusual case comes to an unusual (and happy) conclusion.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Britain, Children, Family, blog --> Tagged With: pattern, usual

One thought on The usual pattern

  • Irene says:
    30th July 2007 at 10:00 am

    Time is a healer and a killer. After the initial shock people forget. But not everyone of course. We live in so wierd times. No limits, no reserve, everything is permitted as long as the social facade of law and order is standing. Thanks for reminding us.

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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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