Having won a national newspaper competition as Young
Journalist of the Year at the age of 12, British-born
Helen Harvey’s love of all things literary has only
increased as middle-age has crept up on her.
At the age of 38, Helen has swapped the constant gray
skies of the UK, for the year-round sunshine of
Southern California. Working as a Legal Writer
full-time, she pursues freelance writing in her spare
time, writing features for domestic and international
newspapers and magazines on eclectic subjects ranging
from travel to tapestries. She has had short stories
published in women's mass media magazines, and
anthologies, and is currently working on her first
novel, and a non-fiction work.
Helen has been lucky enough to travel extensively, and
work in journalism and public relations for vastly
differing organizations and industries, and her
seemingly charmed life has seen its fair share of
disaster and sadness. If asked to choose her most
embarrassing moment the list would not be short, but
always ready to laugh at herself, landing on top of a
coconut palm sun umbrella while parasailing, and
waiting at the bus stop with the back of her skirt
tucked into her knickers, would be somewhere on the
list.
Her interests are many and varied, and lean towards
the creative. Apart from writing, she enjoys drawing
and painting, and is desperately trying to master
painting in oils – vowing never again to insult a work
hung on any gallery wall, having discovered how
difficult it is for herself. She loves to cook,
boasting a repertoire including a chocolate soufflé to
die for, and has tried her hand at all manner of arts
and crafts. Keen on the Arts and Crafts movement on
the early 20th Century, she enjoys flea markets and
fairs, and lives in eternal hope of picking up
something priceless for next to nothing. A lover of
music, her eclectic CD collection ranges from Tony
Bennett to Macy Gray, and pretty much all points in
between with the exception of country and heavy rock,
although her own musical ability is restricted to a
stilted version of ‘Fûr Elise’ on the piano, something
she blames on having to give up music lessons as a
child, due to having a piano teacher with severe
halitosis.
A voracious reader, if desperate she’ll read anything,
and has even been known to thumb through the Yellow
Pages with interest, when nothing more literary has
been at hand. She particularly enjoys good
contemporary fiction, accounts from World War II,
travel journals, and biographies, and is not ashamed
to admit to having read all four of the kid’s Harry
Potter books.
