10th May 2022
ON the whole, my English friends have a relationship with their underwear that is a little like the one they have with their dishwasher. It’s useful, not very pretty and lasts for decades. I remember one pal once joking that of course her underwear was …
3rd February 2022
A tall, slim woman in her thirties wafts across the room – all thick glossy hair, blemish-free skin, clear eyes, full lips and an air of confidence normally reserved for French women from the bon quartier of Paris. Or at least this is how I believe I l …
9th December 2021
By Helena Frith Powell Sitting in a fibreglass tub at a birthing centre in Crowborough, East Sussex, 22 years ago, many things went through my mind as I worked to welcome my first child into the world. ‘When is this going to stop?’ being the most …
11th November 2021
By Helena Frith Powell While shopping with my 22-year-old daughter this August, I recalled how much I love dungarees. My daughter tried on a dark blue linen pair. They looked fabulous. She suggested that ‘we’ buy them and share them. ‘I’m t …
4th November 2021
By Helena Frith Powell Should your child behave badly, it’s probably your fault. I write as a mother of two girls who used to dread parents’ evening — it was one protracted and painful apology. One of the problems is the misguided notion no …
21st October 2021
By Helena Frith Powell When our son was born, I tried to get several ridiculous names past my husband: Raphael, Salvador, Angelo, even Gabriel. But not at any moment in my postpartum confusion did it occur to me to suggest Lucifer. I admit it has a cer …
6th October 2021
By Helena Frith Powell Rather than arguing about who is going to empty the dishwasher, in our home we have endless fights about filling it. I stand alone (unless Rishi happens to pop in for lunch) in the ‘everything has its place’ corner. In the opposi …
15th April 2021
If I were his wife, would I ever trust Dominic West again? Here I am, at home with our four children, when pictures are beamed across the globe of him gazing adoringly at a clearly besotted Lily James, as well as kissing her, stroking her cheek and snu …
8th April 2021
After a year of working from home there are those who will now be keen to swap an unpleasant commute for an amble down the stairs or a desk opposite the accounts department to one overlooking their geraniums forever. And some generous bosses might even …
10th October 2020
Thank goodness for the French. The actress and political activist Catherine Deneuve, along with 99 of her countrywomen, has denounced the #MeToo campaign against sexual harassment as ‘puritanism’ fuelled by ‘hatred of men’. Meanwhile, many in Britain, …
Despite French criticism, the series has drawn a huge audience, thanks in no small part to its heritage. If you’re getting déjà vu — pretty young woman working in media teetering round a major city in ever more extravagant outfits — it’s no coincidence …
10th September 2020
NO By Helena Frith Powell How would you feel if you had to sign a ‘no romance’ clause when you started a new job? Astonishingly, this is now common practice in the U.S. Meanwhile, BlackRock, one of the world’s largest asset-management firms which has a …
15th January 2020
YES By Jenni Murray My old man isn’t likely to be among the first in line at the new John Lewis make-up counter for men, but would I find him less attractive if he were? Certainly not. Why shouldn’t he pop a smidgen of Touche Eclat over his …
23rd September 2019
DAILY MAIL 7 AUGUST 2019 – When my husband and I moved to France in 2000 with our one-year-old daughter, Olivia, I learned an awful lot about the cultural differences between our two countries from my new mum friends. Not only, it appears, do French wo …
10th April 2019
YES By Kate Spicer Once we are on the other side of this pandemic, Dr Anthony Fauci, Donald Trump’s virus expert, says we should carry on compulsively washing our hands and refusing handshakes. What? No shaking hands ever again, you say? The mere prosp …
30th April 2018
‘They can replace hands and lungs, they can fit pacemakers, but they can’t do a damn thing about hot flushes,’ laments the lead character in the new French hit film Aurore, or I Got Life! to give it its English title. My first reaction on hearing this …
27th August 2017
Helena hated her crinkly eyelids for years, but didn’t want surgery. Now she’s found a solution (but it’s not for the faint hearted) The morning of my eye lift treatment, I look in the mirror before I leave home and say a not-so-fond farewell to …
9th July 2017
Helena Frith Powell has spent decades trying to eradicate stubborn stomach fat and tries the new Tripolar machine as it is able to ‘sculpt’ any tummy. The fat-busting treatment costs £300 a session but for Helena it is worth it… By Helena Frit …
21st June 2017
During my last visit to France I visited my beautician. I have known Chantal, who works in a salon in Montpellier, for 15 years and I always pop in for a facial and to talk about the latest skincare products. This year, she had some unusual advice for …
15th January 2017
New Harley Street treatment sees medical threads inserted into the skin to tackle sagging problem areas (with some VERY surprising results) By Helena Frith Powell For The Daily Mail When I was in France on holiday about a year ago, I first noticed a se …
18th December 2016
Revolutionary beauty therapy promises to bring out the best in your bosom By Helena Frith Powell For The Daily Mail Apparently, we Brits are blessed with the most impressive breasts in Europe. The average size in the UK is between 36C and 34E, and it i …
7th December 2016
HELENA FRITH POWELL dared try it for a month – vampire facials and all Have you wondered what it would be like to have all the money and time in the world to spend making yourself look younger? That’s the life former TV presenter Trinny Woodall, who’s …
25th September 2016
One dye-hard brunette tries out the latest age-defying salon treatment Dyeing my hair was one of the first things I ever did to fight the ageing process. I was in my mid-30s when the first bits of grey poked through. I remember being livid. As well as …
20th June 2016
Helena Frith-Powell was initially very intimidated by the elegant Frenchwomen she met when she first moved to France in 2000. Here she asks three French women what they really think about Brits We have always felt threatened by our French counterparts, …
26th February 2016
Kristin Scott Thomas slammed British women in Marie France this week, calling them ‘drunk, vulgar, lacking in style and orange’ due to fake tan. Helena Frith Powell said she too was ‘tres British’ when moved to France but has changed… By Helena Frit …
9th October 2014
As Miss Knightley laments the fact that she misses out on roles because she is too pretty, one writer says she should be grateful There are certain events in my life that I know never would have happened if I’d been born ugly. Real life-changing …
9th April 2014
It’ll infuriate feminists but HELENA FRITH POWELL – who once lived for her career – says she’s stumbled on a basic human truth At first, Helena was too scared to admit she was a stay-at-home mother, now she sees it as a ‘liberation’ Two years ago I sud …
5th March 2014
It’s the moment all women dread. Four writers reveal when it hit them By JILLY JOHNSON and KATE GARRAWAY and CLAUDIA CONNELL FOR MAILONLINE and HELENA FRITH POWELL Actress Sharon Stone struck a chord with women everywhere recently when she revealed the …
29th April 2013
Helena Frith Powell’s new novel, The Ex-Factor, is about first love There’s something so powerful about first love. As Bob Dylan put it so beautifully: ‘The future for me is already a thing of the past – you were my first love and you will be my …
8th July 2009
On the shores of Austria’s picturesque Lake Worth lies a private clinic that has achieved an almost cult-like status among its loyal devotees, who include celebrities, business execs and Russian oligarchs. In the five years since it opened, an array of …
3rd April 2009
It’s an issue all parents face – but rarely talk about. Now, one mother dares to ask that important question… After giving birth, a woman thinks of many things; chocolate, baby names, how soon she can go home, how soon she can sit down without the he …
23rd February 2009
Never mind the Vikings, Stockholm is a city designed for children. The days of rugged bearded men and plunder are over; today, this is a city of gentle, safety-conscious people. You need only look at a zebra crossing and the cars screech to a halt. The …
15th December 2008
Paul, a friend and veteran of the Leap Of Faith, explains: ‘It’s just like bungee-jumping or paragliding. Have you ever tried those?’ Now you mention it, I haven’t. And I have never had any desire to do so. But as soon as I heard we were going to the A …
18th August 2008
Women start to worry about losing their looks at the age of 28, according to a survey which polled the views of 4,000 women. So is this true, or does 28 sound too young – or too old? We asked several women writers, aged from 31 to 73, to reveal the mom …
10th June 2008
The makeover begins before I even get on the plane. I’m in a small cubicle wearing nothing but a black paper thong, being sprayed with fake tan by a girl called Sian. I’m at Heathrow, about to board a flight to New York for a makeover weekend so I may …
6th May 2008
They say your wedding day is the most important day of your life. Preparation often starts a year or more before the big day with dress fittings, gym memberships and debates about whether or not to risk falling up the aisle in your the seven-inch stile …
13th March 2008
Looking eternally young is every woman’s Holy Grail — and we spend millions in pursuit of it. So can anything truly banish those wrinkles? The author of a new book sought out experts around the world to find the answer… Ageing is something of …
6th December 2007
After a hard day on the slopes, I am now lying in the heated outdoor pool of the Mont Cervin Palace Hotel in Zermatt, gazing at the Matterhorn. Earlier in the day, my husband and I had enjoyed the perfect day’s skiing, soaking up the dramatic scenery a …
4th September 2007
Forget the twinkle in his eye, his smile or even the size of his wallet – the way a woman determines if a man is good relationship material is in the first kiss. As the Mail reported yesterday, scientists this week claimed that women have learned to us …
30th August 2007
My aunt always told me there is nothing more boring than a young man when you’re young or an old man when you’re old. Scientists have now confirmed this and, what’s more, it’s not just cultural, it’s biological. Mature males who ogle young totty are no …
17th August 2007
My husband thinks my favourite haunt is a second-hand designer clothes shop in Covent Garden. It is a marvellous place, where you can pick up secondhand designer kit for next to nothing, along with shoes, handbags and other accessories. What he doesn’t …
2nd August 2007
As the people of Oxford yesterday began returning to their flood- stricken homes, smeared with silt and sewage and piled high with the sodden remains of their possessions, at least they were able to sleep safely in their waterlogged beds. The Thames Va …
28th July 2007
The last time I went into Tod’s in London’s Sloane Street, I fell in love with a handbag. It was a subtle shade of green, small and just too cute for words. I picked it up, hung it off my arm and did a twirl. It made my existing handbag (also designer) …
13th July 2007
My father always told me there are two things you can never criticise a man for: his driving and his sexual technique. Perhaps the two skills are linked. After all, they are both expressions of physical dexterity. But if French driving is anything to g …
21st May 2007
There was uproar among my divorced friends last week when Demi Moore was seen canoodling with her new husband Ashton Kutcher in front of her old husband Bruce Willis on a boat. Most older (and balder) former husbands would have thrown the young whipper …
26th April 2007
Helena believed plastic surgery was only for the vain. So what made her go under the knife to remove a spare tyre so small it was almost invisible? Ever since I can remember, I’ve had a pot belly. When I was 12, I would stand in front of a mirror, poin …
Prince William may have broken up with Kate Middleton, but if my own experience is anything to go by, it won’t be the last time they see each other. First loves never really go away. Ask Prince Charles. A first love is something iconic, something that …
23rd February 2007
When I lived in England my preferred seduction technique was as follows. Drink as much alcohol as possible. Make the man I was trying to seduce drink as much as possible as well. Pretend to fall over in his general direction and see what his reaction w …
She has a magazine lifestyle column, a £2million book deal to write about fashion, lucrative Asda and Nike contracts, and is launching her own line of sportswear. Yet three years ago, Coleen McLoughlin, 19, was a Merseyside schoolgirl with puppy fat an …
The wife of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has just done what millions of Italian women must have felt like doing; publicly rebuked her husband for flirting outrageously. Veronica Lario wrote a letter to La Reppublica – one of the few …
A plea in Femail recently by Lauren Booth begged women of a certain age to “embrace wrinkles and explanding waists”. Author of Two Lipsticks and Lover, Helena Frith Powell, strongly disagrees. Rarely has something made me want to reach for my lip gloss …
13th December 2006
Napoleon was wrong. It is the French who are a nation of shopkeepers, not the English. Here in France there are specific shops for every item; here one doesn’t live in Tescoland. You would as soon buy your beef from the supermarket as your lingerie. Th …
11th December 2006
Last week Amanda Platell wrote an article in Femail about men leaving their wives and girlfriends for younger women. She cites Brad Pitt as an example of the ultimate swine. He left Jennifer Aniston for the much younger Angelina Jolie and then immediat …
I used to work in the city as a financial journalist and headhunter. I encountered sexual harassment on a daily basis. I was chatted up, whistled at and even had flowers sent to my office containing suggestive notes. I found the city a grossly unfair p …
About two years ago I made a new friend called Patrick. Since then I have introduced him to lots of my female friends. They all adore him. A week ago I sat down with one of them and tried to define why. Patrick is the wrong side of 60, so it isn’t his …
The most popular look with the French women in the village I live in is an easy one to copy. Take an old pair of slippers, preferably weather-beaten and worn as you have spent years walking to the bakery in them, a totally shapeless grey dress and a di …
A report published last week by the Institute for Public Policy Research states that Britain is suffering from a baby gap of 92,000 babies a year as women put off having children because of the rising cost of childcare. Six years ago my husband and I w …
There has been much discussion about the best formation – some favour a 2-2-3, others think we should operate with a lone striker. There has also been much debate about the tactics – do we begin slowly or set a blistering pace that the others can’t mat …
Imagine a country where it is dark for most of the year. Think of a place where the snow is so deep you can’t leave home without a snow-plough. Envisage somewhere so cold that if you go out with wet hair it freezes and breaks off. And a glass of beer c …
What is he on? At home he has a beautiful, elegant, intelligent and talented woman. And yet he can’t resist the young totty on the side. Actor Ralph Fiennes has been revealed as the latest in the line of men who risk their relationships for something t …
1st November 2006
Helena Frith Powell never knew her eccentric Italian father, Benedetto Benedetti, when she was growing up.Her mother left him – and Italy – for a man who was to become Helena’s stepfather when she was just three years old. But when Helena was 14 …
31st July 2006
When ex-pat, HELENA FRITH POWELL returned to Britain after six years she was horrified by how we’ve changed shape:The Russian billionaire and owner of Chelsea football club, Roman Abramovich, has hired an acupuncturist to help him lose weight, a …