Helen Hickey

(Published in Malay Mail Online Thanksgiving, 27 November) I’m a big fan of Thanksgiving, so much so that we celebrated it last Saturday to ensure a good-turnout of mates rather than wait for the official “fourth Thursday of November”. But today, Thanksgiving Day, people across America will be knee-deep in turkeys and pumpkin pie, enjoying their national holiday to the full. Weird right? That a British family should be celebrating an American tradition in Paris. Even weirder

(Published in The Malay Mail on 17 November) Lively reminders of dark side of human nature and the fragility of peace are a good thing. Even for children. Two generations of my family have enjoyed life without the blight of a world war, and the idea that something so awful and so wrong could have happened feels very remote. For my children, with the passing of 70 years since World War II, and 100 since the first, I think it is too far removed for them to even imagine. This is

(Published in The Malay Mail 10 November 2014) Enough of “le french bashing et le pessimisme” France’s Prime Minister declared last Monday during a business award ceremony in central Paris. Not one to mince his words, Manual Valls went on to remind his audience of 1500 entrepreneurs that French heavyweights L’Oréal, Clarins, Total, Danone and Free have all done their bit to “Conquer the United States”. Channel-surfing, looking for something vaguely of interest to improve my F