IN SEARCH OF PERFUMES

Translated from the French and sub-titled 'A Lifetime Journey to the Sources of Nature's Scents' we have never come across a book quite like this one. 'Reminiscent of the Queen of Sheba, a collector and distiller of resins is smelling the beauty of her frankincense in Somaliland, where the journey of perfume started, 50 centuries ago' it says on the back cover with a photograph in colour. The inspiration of this book sprang from a trip when the author found herself standing next to a frankincense tree in that country. 'The collector had made an incision in the trunk, causing small milky drops to start to bead.' The fruits, flowers, spices, bark, leaves and branches are just some of the natural ingredients from the plant world that are used in the creation of perfume. Roques travels from Andalusia to Somaliland by way of Bulgaria, Laos, El Salvador, Indonesia and Egypt and describes his search to find the best natural ingredients precious to perfumiers everywhere. He demonstrates how the fastidious multi-million-pound perfume industry may begin its life as a single plant harvested by producers surviving on ancestral traditions and techniques, and often risking their lives in the process as the combat the rising threat of climate change. Roques reveals the beauty and mysteries of a familiar trade and 'this book is my homage to the harvesters of the world.' 304pp, photos, line art and maps.