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Ciao Bella: Sex, Dante & How to Find a Father in Italy
'You really must read… Ciao Bella.' Sunday Times 'Fascinating… comic… delightful' Sunday Times 'Humorous… rich and satisfying.' Daily Telegraph 'Beautifully written, it made me laugh and I wanted to follow in Helena's footsteps round Italy.' Kate Figes 'A travel book with a difference.' Coventry Evening Telegraph 'An ideal stocking filler.' Evening Standard (Glasgow) 'Brilliant.' BBC Radio Oxford Shabina Akhtar 'I defy anyone not to enjoy it.' Harrow Observer In this exceptional travel book, Helena Frith Powell travels through Italy with her father to discover the Italian family she never knew about. In a rare twist of fate, Helena Frith Powell grew up in Newbury as a shy girl, oblivious of her extrovert Italian family. But, at the age of 14, she was suddenly rudely awakened to the truth, when her real father wrote to her and invited her to come to Italy. Her Italian-style adolescence is guided by her Lothario father, her lying aunt and her doting grandmother. While writing this memoir fourteen years later, she reestablishes contact with her father, who ran out of her wedding, and finally finds their common ground. In this funny, moving and entertaining journey to the places she visited with her father, Helena combines descriptions of Italy, its food, fashion, culture and people to get to grips with a foreign culture that is genetically her own.
288 pages, Paperback
First published November 9, 2006
8 people are currently reading
79 people want to read
About the author
Helena Frith Powell
25 books32 followersHelena Frith Powell used to write the French Mistress column in The Sunday Times about living in France. She has also been a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.
Helena is the author of More France Please, we’re British, a book published in November 2004 by Gibson Square Books about her experiences in France. She is also the author of a book about French women called Two Lipsticks and a Lover published in October 2005 by Gibson Square Books. The paperback was published by Penguin in the US in December 2006 under the title All You Need to be Impossibly French. The paperback in the UK was published by Arrow in February 2007. It was also published in Russia, Thailand and China during 2007. It was published in France in March 2008 under the title So Chic! Two Lipsticks was also translated into Russian, Chinese and Thai.
She is also the author of a memoir called Ciao Bella, published by Gibson Square in October 2006 and re-released in 2012. Her book about ageing called To Hell in High Heels was published by Arrow in April 2008, which has been translated into several languages.
Her diet book, The Viva Mayr Diet, was published by Harper Collins in May 2009. Her latest book is a novel set in France about the French art of having affairs called Love in a Warm Climate, which was published in March 2011 by Gibson Square.
Helena was educated at Durham University and lived in the Languedoc region of France for eight years. She now lives in Abu Dhabi with her husband Rupert and their three children Olivia, Bea and Leonardo. She is editorial director of a high-end fashion glossy called Masquerade magazine. Her latest novel, which is about first love and set in London, will be out in the spring of 2013.
Helena is the author of More France Please, we’re British, a book published in November 2004 by Gibson Square Books about her experiences in France. She is also the author of a book about French women called Two Lipsticks and a Lover published in October 2005 by Gibson Square Books. The paperback was published by Penguin in the US in December 2006 under the title All You Need to be Impossibly French. The paperback in the UK was published by Arrow in February 2007. It was also published in Russia, Thailand and China during 2007. It was published in France in March 2008 under the title So Chic! Two Lipsticks was also translated into Russian, Chinese and Thai.
She is also the author of a memoir called Ciao Bella, published by Gibson Square in October 2006 and re-released in 2012. Her book about ageing called To Hell in High Heels was published by Arrow in April 2008, which has been translated into several languages.
Her diet book, The Viva Mayr Diet, was published by Harper Collins in May 2009. Her latest book is a novel set in France about the French art of having affairs called Love in a Warm Climate, which was published in March 2011 by Gibson Square.
Helena was educated at Durham University and lived in the Languedoc region of France for eight years. She now lives in Abu Dhabi with her husband Rupert and their three children Olivia, Bea and Leonardo. She is editorial director of a high-end fashion glossy called Masquerade magazine. Her latest novel, which is about first love and set in London, will be out in the spring of 2013.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 10, 2014
In the realm of reinvent-yourself travel literature, Ciao Bella stands alone, unique in that the author is not trying to become something new: she discovers she’s been something else all along and needs to reckon that truth. And while characters who jump of the page are somewhat rare in travel lit– the destination usually plays lead– this book is populated with larger than life Italians who do just that. First traveling to Italy and meeting her Italian father when she is fourteen, Helena finds that she might be more Italian thank she ever imagined, not that this is an easy truth. Her father is a difficult man and their relationship remains unfulfilled until long after she returns to Italy years later, by now a mother and a French expat. More than travel lit, this is a great work about complicated families, tumultuous relationships, multinational identities, growing up, redemption, and finding out who you really are.
See http://booksforherreviews.com/2014/08...
November 12, 2017
Read for my Italian summer trip; oh those Italians!
January 11, 2023
A really emotive tale, but I think the best parts are towards the end. A nice read if you’re heading to Italy to enjoy by the pool.
July 21, 2023
I reread this book. Now I wonder why I kept it so long. Sadly it’s unrelentingly rude, self obsessed and unkind. I could forgive that if it was funny but it didn’t make me laugh.
May 7, 2015
I found this book self-indulgent. Though the father was obnoxious, I did feel some sympathy for him as he was denied his paternal rights. I think a book on the author's mother would be interesting as she clearly has issues.
January 2, 2014
a pleasant quick read, like a holiday in Italy, although all her relatives sound absolutely vile!
February 23, 2014
Wonderful book. Italy comes alive and the author and her family do, too. Loved it!
August 11, 2014
Very entertaining read, reminds me of A Year In Provence.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews