Although the house is ridiculously grand, there was nothing stuffy about the wedding. Chum’s dog Artemis was our ring bearer, although just with one for me because Chum refuses to wear a wedding ring (due to a complication with the family signet ring he wears on his left little finger). I wasn’t going to have my dog left out, so Digger was a page. Not the most well-behaved one, but he had to be there. Chum’s nephew was the other page.
My son Lucas gave me away and my daughter Clemmie was my bridesmaid. My friends Shirlee and Lori were my joint best women and they gave a hilarious two-hander speech, which had everyone roaring with laughter.
Chum had an old friend from school as his best man, which was lovely, because I knew him from university too – which was where I first met Chum. We had a piper to accompany us from the chapel to the wedding breakfast. Chum wanted us to ride his horse but I put my foot down. (Too Sting and Trudie.)
All in all, it was the most amazing day – although I have to say that every single day with Chum is a joy, whether we are in our house on the estate, where he runs a farm-shop business, or at the flat in London I bought after selling my house.
My smells of a wedding are roses and lavender, which were both blooming all round the marquee in the formal garden, and were used to decorate the chapel. All the flowers for the wedding were grown on the estate.
Then there are the wilder outdoor smells of wet grass and mud, which are so entwined with my falling in love with Chum. He would no doubt add cow poo in there, because we did walk through a lot of fields in the early days of our romance.
I’d also have to include the autumn tinge of apples, because he always seemed to have them in his pocket. The waxy smell of his Barbour jacket has to be in there too.
In with all that I have to include the vanillic chocolate of bourbons and all the other cheap biscuits my husband (my husband!) so adores, and the beautiful clean floral that is mimosa.
Then there are the leathery smells I associate with horses, which always linger around Chum, but as it was my wedding too, I’m throwing in my mum’s smells, my daughter’s, my son’s, my dog’s and my best friend’s. They all played their part.
Which leaves just two things to add: rosemary for remembrance of Chum’s parents and his older brother, who sadly died young. And the heathery peat of single-malt whisky for my darling departed dad.
So those are all my wedding smells, but there could only be two possible scents for it: the bespoke fragrances that my friend Guy Webber blended for me and Edward as his wedding present to us, following a tradition invented by Jacques Guerlain in 1907.
Edward’s is wonderfully leathery cologne with a hint of animalic sweat and a top note of vanilla, to reflect his equestrian and biscuit interests. For me, Guy brilliantly combined echoes of those elements into my favourite chypre, PM, which is his bestselling perfume.
So my scents for a wedding (as named by Guy) are:
Horsey Boy by the Great Eastern Fragrance Company
Thanks, Digger by the Great Eastern Fragrance Company
Acknowledgements
First of all my most devoted thanks to my best friend Josephine Fairley and my new friend Lorna McKay, the founders of the amazing Perfume Society, who allowed me to go and hang around in their London offices for several heavenly scented weeks. (Also heavily scented because I was spraying myself with everything in there that wasn’t nailed down.)
The winner of multiple Jasmine Awards, Josephine is a world authority on perfume and her knowledge of the subject is astonishing and inspiring. It was through her I came to understand just how rich and fascinating the world of perfume is.
Thanks also to the fabulous Perfume Society team – Carson Fairley, Penny Sheard and the extraordinarily talented perfume writer Suzy Nightingale.
It was Suzy who told me I wasn’t allowed to have one ‘signature scent’ to wear all the time or to ‘save for best’, but must gaily spritz whatever takes my fancy on any particular day. Also that I must keep all my scents in their boxes and out of sunlight in a cupboard, however beautiful the bottles.
I have been opening and closing complicated boxes every morning since. And a different one in the evening.
It was Lorna MacKay who warned me off the wrist banging thing. You must spray each one individually – spritz, swap, spritz – or you will bruise the fragrance. Who knew? Lorna, that’s who.
Have a look at their splendid work on perfumesociety.com, and I heartily recommend their magazine The Scented Letter.
I named my lead character Polly after my new absolutely very favourite perfume which I discovered while I was there: Dear Polly by Villhelm. I’m obsessed with it.
Also on the research side, massive respect and honours to the gorgeous Lizzie Ostrom for her superb book Perfume, A Century of Scents, which is entertaining, fascinating and scholarly in equal measure, and her wonderful Odette Toilette events, which are so inspiring.
Other books I have found invaluable:
Perfume Legends: French Feminine Fragrances by Michael Edwards
The Perfume Bible by Josephine Fairley and Lorna Mackay
The New Perfume Handbook by Nigel Groom
The Book of Perfumes by John Oakes
Perfumes, The A-Z Guide by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez
On the publishing side of things, massive thanks to the wonderful (and very patient) team at HarperCollins. My publisher Anna Valdinger deserves a medal. Her colleague Mary Rennie and editor Emma Dowden were also brilliantly helpful. And big thanks to the legendary Shona Martyn.
I am also madly grateful to the brilliant HarperCollins design duo Lisa White and Hazel Lam, who have delivered another cover that made me squeal with delight when I first saw it. I can practically smell it.
Big thanks as always to my agents Fiona Inglis and Tara Wynne at Curtis Brown, who are there for me in a snap whenever I’m having a neurotic-writer moment (frequent).
I must also thank Josephine Fairley again here, for reading the manuscript on loose sheets of paper to check I hadn’t made any perfume bloopers. That was a big ask. Mwah mwah.
Thanks to my lovely friends Emily and Richard Ault (and not forgetting Dudley the labradoodle) for making me so welcome at their lovely house, while I studied at the Perfume Society. Also to my friend and teacher, Hilary Totah, for telling me how a real yoga guru starts her day.
And to the shining lights of my life, Pop and Peggy, for supporting me so tirelessly through the ups and downs – and all nighters – of the writing process and making me laugh (and cups of tea) all the way.
PS. If you want to read more of Polly’s blog posts, check out fragrantcloud.net
About the Author
MAGGIE ALDERSON is the author of nine novels and four collections of her columns from Good Weekend magazine. Her children’s book Evangeline, the Wish Keeper’s Helper was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award. Before becoming a full-time author she worked as a journalist and columnist in the UK and Australia, editing several magazines, including British ELLE. She writes for the Sunday Age and at maggiealderson.com. She is married and has one daughter.
Follow Maggie on Twitter @MaggieA and Instagram @maggiealderson
Praise for Maggie Alderson’s books
‘Alderson . . . controls her material cleverly. She has a nifty ability to leave each vignette or chapter with a cliffhanger, and then keep you waiting as she proceeds to another character’s personal drama’ Sydney Morning Herald
‘Brimming with wit and wisdom. A delightful read’ Courier-Mail
‘Alderson’s books have heart’ Melbourne Weekly
‘An engrossing story that will make you laugh and cry’ Australian Women’s Weekly
‘Great fun. If you don’t finish it ready to revamp your house and your wardrobe then there’s something wrong with you!’ Sunday Mail (Brisbane)
‘A funny, lighthearted read’ Glamour
‘A supreme commentator on the vagaries of fashion’ Sunday Age
‘A wick
ed read – funny, sexy and stylish’ Best magazine
‘A witty modern romance . . . much more than a Bridget Jones’s Diary’ Vogue
‘a deft and flawless authorial voice . . . Alderson has a sly sense of humour when she pricks the consciences of her characters, and there are some lovely laugh-out-loud moments’ Newtown Review of Books
‘It is Alderson’s real-life drama style that is so enjoyable – in so many cases you see a little bit of yourself in her characters’ Chronicle
‘Reading a Maggie Alderson book, I swear, is like slipping into a bubble bath after a long day of bleurgh’ Hannah Louey, Goodreads
‘wonderfully complex and interwoven’ Daisy, Goodreads
‘An enjoyable, smart, insightful yet easy read. Love Maggie!’ Josanne, Goodreads
Click here to read more titles from the Sisterhood of Reading
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in Australia in 2017
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Maggie Alderson 2017
The right of Maggie Alderson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
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978 1 4607 5121 3 (pbk.)
978 1 4607 0583 4 (ebook)
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Alderson, Maggie, author.
The scent of you / Maggie Alderson.
Families – fiction.
Women – fiction.
Cover design by Lisa White, HarperCollins Design Studio
Perfume bottle by shutterstock.com
The Scent of You Page 45