The Scent Trail: How One Woman’s Quest for the Perfect Perfume Took Her Around the World

For globe-trotting British journalist Lyttelton, “scent evokes memories.” Such memories from her childhood, when she traveled with her archeologist mother to distant countries, led her to embark on a quest to find scent origins around the world. Seeking her own “bespoke” perfume, she visits a London perfumer, introducing readers to the delicate art of composing a perfume, evoking, for instance, “a forest at dawn soaked in dew” or, more abstractly, a piece of music. With her own formula in hand, Lyttelton sets out to visit places where the ingredients are grown, hoping to meet the harvesters, encounter fragrant fumes and discover the secrets of perfume making. Lyttelton has a magical manner of blending words and sentences to summon up splendiferous odors amid her anecdotes, memories and historical research. Scented sentences permeate the pages as she takes the reader along on her “olfactory odyssey” across far-flung, labyrinthine landscapes, from the French Riviera and Morocco to Tuscany and Sri Lanka. Her enchanting escapades conclude with a glossary of terminology used by perfumers. (Feb. 3)