Perfume blogger Polly is in crisis. Will her husband's absence break her ... or make her? A novel of perfumes, exploring life, love, loss and forgiveness - Maggie Alderson's new bestseller. Are you still married if you haven't seen your husband for months? Polly's life is great. Her children are away at uni, her glamorous mother - still modelling at eighty-five - is happily settled in a retirement village, and her perfume blog is taking off. Then her husband announces he needs some space and promptly vanishes. As Polly grapples with her bewildering situation, she clings to a few new friends to keep her going - Shirlee, the loudmouthed yoga student; Guy, the mysterious, infuriating and hugely talented perfumer; and Edward, an old flame from university. And while she distracts herself with the heady world of luxury perfume, Polly knows she can't keep reality at bay forever. Eventually she is forced to confront some difficult truths: about her husband, herself and who she really wants to be.
Author
Maggie Alderson is a British-Australian author (that’s how I’m supposed to write it, but I’m not very good at talking about myself in the third person, so I’m going to can it). I was born in London, brought up in rural Staffordshire, and educated at the University of St Andrews - and then at the University of Life, Sydney campus. I spent many years covering the fashion shows in Paris, Milan, London etc which is the best people watching ever (I had to remind myself to look at the models…). An obsessed bookworm since childhood, all I wanted to do from the age of six was write books. I also hoovered up every magazine and newspaper I could lay my hands on and by the time I was a teenager was determined to edit a magazine and be a newspaper columnist. I have edited five magazines (including British ELLE) and my Style Notes column ran in the Good Weekend colour supplement for twelve years, as well as being syndicated to The Times. My first novel Pants on Fire was published in 2000 and was a bestseller in the UK and Australia. I’ve written eight more novels since, which have been translated into many languages. I’ve also published four collections of my columns and a children’s book called Evangeline, the Wish Keeper’s Helper, which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Award in Australia. My latest novel is called The Scent of You and is the story of perfume blogger Polly, facing up to a crisis in her marriage – and her sense of who she is - told through a filter of her obsession with perfumes (and also featuring very well dressed, seriously damaged, red-hot men, which are my speciality). The book was inspired by attending perfume events in London and realising just how many fascinating people there are in that world (and a fair few brilliant nutters). You can read my heroine's blog fragrantcloud.net
