helen walsh Archives - Helen Walsh

Private Libraries, Curated Book Boxes + Ascendent Indies

By Helen WalshPosted on July 26, 2023September 11, 2023Posted in LetterboxTagged Book Boxes, helen walsh, libraries, London

A few years ago, I started work on a story idea about a woman who curates private libraries for clients. I’d recently read an article in the FT and it piqued my curiosity. A library is your story on a shelf. – Nicky Dunne, creator of bespoke private libraries. Heywood Hill is not your average bookshop. Opened in 1936, it was run during the later years of WWII by Lady Anne Gathome-Hardy and novelist Nancy Mitford, of the infamous Mitford […]

NYC, Tribeca Film Festival + War Correspondents

By Helen WalshPosted on June 19, 2023September 11, 2023Posted in LetterboxTagged helen walsh, Journalist, NYC, Tribeca

I’ve just returned from the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. It was literally the Big Smoke: at times the air was orange and unbreathable due to forest fires burning in Québec. As one taxi driver said to me, it brought back eerie memories of the last time the air had been that bad: September 11th. And I agreed. The Tribeca Film Festival was founded by Robert DeNiro, his long-term producing partner Jane Rosenthal and her then husband Craig Hatkoff in […]

Special Edition: London Book Fair, Part 3/3 + Newport, Rhode Island

By Helen WalshPosted on May 16, 2023May 16, 2023Posted in LetterboxTagged books, helen walsh, indie publishing, newport, publishing, rhode island, the ocean race, writing, writing life

I’m writing this from the Newport, Rhode Island where I am having a 4-day long weekend. It’s The Ocean Race weekend, the only North American stop on an around the world sailing race (32,000 nautical mile or 60,000 km), that is amongst the world’s toughest and craziest team sports. The crew race day and night for more than twenty days at a time on some legs, slammed by the wind and waves and extreme conditions that can fluctuate from -5 to +40 degrees […]

Special Edition: London Book Fair, Part 2/3

By Helen WalshPosted on May 10, 2023May 16, 2023Posted in Letterbox, UncategorizedTagged helen walsh, marketing, publishing, social media, travel, writing life

I don’t know about you, but I gave last weekend’s coronation a pass. The pictures on the news though, all that ceremony and pomp, cheekily reminded me of an event I stumbled upon at the National Gallery when I was in London for the Book Fair. The National Gallery’s Friday Lates is free evening arts programming that varies each week; in this case Life Drawing. Two performance artists interpreted a Renaissance painting from the gallery (The Ugly Duchess) and […]

Special Edition: London Book Fair, Part 1/3

By Helen WalshPosted on April 26, 2023May 16, 2023Posted in LetterboxTagged helen walsh, London Book Fair, publishing, travel, writing advice, writing life

I’ve returned from a fascinating week in London in which I stayed in Shepherds Bush, a dynamic area west of Kensington I’d never really visited except to go to meetings at the BBC. My hotel was oddly fascinating. My room triggered an unfortunate muscle memory of Super 8 Motels from US road trips; the breakfast area was filled with publishing types and in the evenings hordes of men speaking Russian, often sporting loud gold jewellery, occupied the main floor […]

Origin Stories + London Book Fair + Book & Film RECs.

By Helen WalshPosted on April 11, 2023April 26, 2023Posted in LetterboxTagged agents, family, helen walsh, publishing, scottish, travel

When my sisters and I were bored or listless, depressed or anguished, our mother would inevitably say, ‘you need a project.’ It set our teeth on end. Did she not understand the nature of heartache? The cruel injustice of the world that handed things to other people – whether that was a loving partner, a paying job, good health or the opportunity to chase your dreams – and denied it to you? We wanted to wallow in […]

Life of a Queen

By Helen WalshPosted on January 23, 2023April 26, 2023Posted in LetterboxTagged book clubs, helen walsh, Queen Mary, Sundance, travel, writing life

Hello stranger. It’s been a while. While the Prince Harry memoir Spare breaks bestselling records, and British journalists sneer yet gobble up every available column inch to denounce it (apparently despising the media pretty much guarantees they despise you back. . .), I’m here to talk about the Queen. And I don’t mean Elizabeth II. Last May, we took a transatlantic crossing between New York and Southampton, England on the Queen Mary 2, decades after my parents and three older […]

Why TV is Good For You.

By Helen WalshPosted on November 28, 2022September 11, 2023Posted in WritingTagged helen walsh, publishing, scriptwriting, writer-in-residence, writing life

*This was published by Open Book as part of my writer-in-residency appointment. If your mother was like my mother, you were told to turn off the television as a child (in my case, Family Ties or Miami Vice or Murder She Wrote or. . .) and pick up a book. Any book. Because everyone knew reading was better for you than staring at the idiot box. Now, far be it from me to suggest my mother wasn’t right about everything. I […]

Ask Jane (Agony Aunt)

By Helen WalshPosted on November 26, 2022September 11, 2023Posted in WritingTagged agony aunt, helen walsh, publishing, pull focus, thrillers, writer-in-residence, writing characters, writing life

* This was published by Open Book as part of my writer-in-residency appointment. Hi, I’m Jane, and I’m the protagonist of Helen’s novel, Pull Focus. I’m taking over the blog today to answer questions readers may about me, or the book, or anything else. What’s an Agony Aunt? A woman who replies to reader’s letters, usually in a newspaper or magazine column, and gives advice. What qualifies you to give advice? Probably not too much, but […]

How to Cook A Look

By Helen WalshPosted on November 19, 2022September 11, 2023Posted in WritingTagged canadian designers, helen walsh, localmade, publishing, pull focus, writer-in-residence, writing life

*This was published by Open Book as part of my writer-in-residence appointment. In March 2021, my house was completely destroyed by fire. Thankfully, I wasn’t home at the time. Although the fire incinerated only one floor, the smoke and soot travelled everywhere, including via the firemen’s heavy boots as they ran up the stairs with their axe chopping holes in the walls to ensure no sparks flew unseen. Smoke and soot are carcinogenic, so the […]