mint Posted July 27, 2009 Share Posted July 27, 2009 So, you weren't expecting to get a request for help with the babysitting then?[:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5-element Posted July 27, 2009 Share Posted July 27, 2009 I would never give it a thought, unless you can trust a long-distance, remote control babysitter.[:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letrangere Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 Lots of people get a job because of who they know - it's commonly known as "networking" - and is both a socially acceptable and perfectly normal method of finding a job today, especially in France. Along with many of my French friends, it's certainly something I relied upon when I lived and worked there full time.But how many of you criticising Helena's writing are published authors and/or commissioned on a regular basis to produce articles for major UK newspapers/French magazines? If you can do better, show us. Look forward to seeing you all in the Daily Mail next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 Just because someone she knows gave her a job doesn't make HFP a good writer, any more than someone giving me a paintbrush makes me an artist! However I guess many of us know what art we like and in the same way are free to critique HFP's cliche ridden prose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted July 28, 2009 Author Share Posted July 28, 2009 [quote]how many of you criticising Helena's writing are published authors and/or commissioned on a regular basis to produce articles for major UK newspapers/French magazines?[/quote]Does HFP only write for published authors or journalists?Who is the target audience of the UK newspapers/French magazines who commission her articles?Isn't that target audience allowed to express an opinion? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 No, not a published author but does that mean I have no critical faculties and cannot distinguish good writing from "writing"?Using your own argument, would you have to be a professional musician in order to apply your critical listening faculties to a concert you go to?Or be a professional cook to appreciate (or not) a meal in a restaurant?Good reply, RH and I'm merely adding my objection to yours here. Clearly, some people have very little in the way of discrimination....... [6]PS: Pardon, Clair. I was writing even as you were and didn't see your post before writing my reply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just john Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 Calm down - it's only a forum! There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. [Ecclesiastes 3:1] Bible ''Well I always start when I go on holiday with a really trashy novel. You need something to completely empty your mind and take you back.'' David Cameron - Andrew Marr ShowPerhaps that's who she's aimed at, people who need some thing to empty their minds, Dave might buy a copy of All you need to be Impossibly French[:D], - course not guaranteed to be efficacious in every case[8-|] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 [quote user="just john "]Calm down - it's only a forum! There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. [Ecclesiastes 3:1] Bible ''Well I always start when I go on holiday with a really trashy novel. You need something to completely empty your mind and take you back.'' David Cameron - Andrew Marr ShowPerhaps that's who she's aimed at, people who need some thing to empty their minds, Dave might buy a copy of All you need to be Impossibly French[:D], - course not guaranteed to be efficacious in every case[8-|] [/quote]No comment needed here, I think!As for "taking you back" (sic)............back where or to what?Typical politician's reply: on the one hand trying to sound like what they imagine their "typical" constituent to be like and, on the other, talking tosh as every politician is wont to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 Well Daisy Waugh replied!She was as vague as the day she was born! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 What makes you think Daisy Waugh replied ? Do you know something we don't ?[8-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted July 29, 2009 Author Share Posted July 29, 2009 Two pages ago...[quote user="jon"]So you hate the way she writes!She isprojecting the character nand personality of a thirty something womanwho finds fashion to be more important than the more mundane side oflife. It is very boreing to be sensable but some of us find it anecessary liability.Can Daisy really be so niave....or is she playing the part of theyoung actress who took the wrong road in both Alice's wonderland andthe Wizard of Oz.I emailed Daisy but got no reply.I still dislike all this negativity towards France.I was reading somewhere...The French Property News!!!!! actually...that France was best placed to excit the finacial storm.3 PAGEarticle.....Properties are selling.....at least they are in my area Gironde.Just finished serving dinner.....very tireing....but at least I am working.[/quote] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 Aaaah.......thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 It kis not just "Yuppie Muppets" who come to visit their friends with expectations of taxi service,free tours,restaurant and room service.It seems to me that the more you give...the more they expect. So rules need to be laid down.But in Daisy's case the information was probably 70% fairy tale to create a story which would interest the editors.....not just the readers.Woe and more woe is sensational.....is it not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panda Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 [quote user="jon"] I was reading somewhere...The French Property News!!!!! actually ...that France was best placed to excit the finacial storm.3 PAGE article.....Properties are selling.....at least they are in my area Gironde.[/quote]Agreeing with Scooby, I think that FPN are clearly trying to keep people buying the magazine and the houses, this is simply wishful thinking sadly. My friend has still not sold a single property in now more than a year, it is not rosy in immobillier land. I wish it was for all of our sakes! They are hardly likely to write the property market is up the spout and France are as badly placed as every country to get out of this mess now are they! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cendrillon Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 So true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ausibattler Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 Alice in wonderland? I don't think so!!!Be what you would seem to be, or if you'd like it put more simply:"Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear toothers that what you were or might have been was not otherwise thanwhat you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 [quote user="letrangere"] But how many of you criticising Helena's writing are published authors and/or commissioned on a regular basis to produce articles for major UK newspapers/French magazines? If you can do better, show us. Look forward to seeing you all in the Daily Mail next week.[/quote]Just because an author is published or regularly commissioned doesn't make them a good writer. Many may be used for specialist knowledge and are made to appear as much better writers through the efforts of largely anonymous sub-editors. As somebody who, I suppose, could describe myself as a properly trained, published writer who appears regularly in international magazines, I feel I am able to offer my opinion. That is, both Daisy Waugh and Helena Frith-Powell are good writers. Where others express different opinions, this I think concerns not so much the style or grammatical correctness of the writing, but in the choice, and rather hackneyed nature, of subject matter. And of course in the way those others think they could do better. But can't.Being married to an estate agent working in France (who is still managing to get some sales, though things are far from rosy) I might be expected to 'talk up' French life. But Mrs Will and I prefer honesty, and I see rather more honesty in Daisy Waugh's article than is contained in the tourist-board-driven puff in certain lifestyle and property magazines about France.L'etrangere might also like to know that before coming to France I held a managing editor position with part of the Daily Mail [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 Try this one for size (no comment...)http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8176312.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 [quote user="Will"][quote user="letrangere"] But how many of you criticising Helena's writing are published authors and/or commissioned on a regular basis to produce articles for major UK newspapers/French magazines? If you can do better, show us. Look forward to seeing you all in the Daily Mail next week.[/quote]And of course in the way those others think they could do better. But can't.[/quote]There is no connection between the ability to do something and the ability to criticise how it is done.I for example would not be able to get a job on the basis of the person I am sleeping with, and I admit that HFP I better at that than I am. It doesn't mean that I can't have an opinion on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 Very true Norman. There are opinions and opinions. And as everybody knows, only one correct opinion (i.e. one's own). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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