It occurred to me yesterday that I haven't really mentioned Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez for their fabulous book "Perfumes The A-Z Guide". Reading the Guide was the motivating factor for me to start writing about perfume.
The authors clearly know a huge amount about the perfume industry. And it seems that they know many of the most influential perople personally.
What I found most interesting about the Guide is how it puts things into perspective. For instance, I'm by no means a fan of Thierry Mugler's Angel, but when I read the review of Angel I can understand how it was a landmark perfume at the time it was created. It was something that had never been done before and has proved to be a huge commercial success.
Most of all, the Guide gave me the confidence that there is no right or wrong. A case in point is Michael Kors, which I think is a pretty and extremely wearable fragrance. The Guide gives it one star and comments, "Shrieking hair raising horror, probably first rejected for use in industrial drain cleaner. One of the worst ever."
Finally, The Guide has the courage of its convictions. In the question and answer section in the introduction, there is a question, "Why don't you include the year of release, the official list of notes, the perfumer etc., for every fragrance." And the answer is, "We have no passion for data entry." Simultaneously down to earth and extremely pompous. Brilliant.