Acknowledgements

I couldn’t be more grateful to Bertrand Duchaufour for his trust, time, creativity, generosity and friendship, and for making me the most beautiful gift a perfume lover could ever hope for.

A million thanks to Jenny Heller, my marvellous editor at HarperCollins, for sparking the idea for this book as well as for her invaluable support and advice. And thank you so much to Helena Nicholls, who took over the project with such grace and enthusiasm, as well as to Georgina Atsiaris, Elen Jones and all the team at HarperCollins, and to Susan Opie for her keen eye.

I have a huge debt of gratitude to my wonderful agent Homa Rastegar at A. P. Watt, and to our friend Alexander Greene, who set everything in motion. Thank you also to all the team at A. P. Watt, especially to Linda Shaughnessy and Louise Lamont.

I am deeply grateful to L’Artisan Parfumeur for launching Séville à l’aube into the world: thank you to Sarah Rotheram, Nick Steward, Alissa Sullivan for making it happen, and to Florian Pedemanaud for being so supportive.

I am also deeply indebted to my friend Octavian Coifan for sharing his encyclopaedic knowledge so generously and for rereading the historic parts of the manuscript (any remaining errors are mine), as well as for the countless hours we spent discussing and smelling things.

Thank you to Olivier Maure and Michel Roudnitska, who invited me into the magical realm of Sainte-Blanche, and to Sandrine Videault for instilling some of its spirit into me from afar.

My heartfelt thanks to everyone in the perfume industry who gave me their time and shared their knowledge and stories with me: Christian Astuguevieille, Abdes Salam Attar, Mathilde Bijaoui, Élisabeth de Feydeau, Étienne de Swardt, Pierre Dinand, Isabelle Doyen, Marie Dumont, Vero Kern, Mathilde Laurent, Annick Le Guérer, Antoine Lie, Serge Lutens, Frédéric Malle, Annick Menardo, Pamela Roberts, Dominique Ropion, Patrick Saint-Yves …

This book would never have been possible without the vibrant online perfume community where I found so many friends and sources of inspiration: all my gratitude to my fellow bloggers, with special thanks to March Dodge for allowing me to quote extensively from her Perfume Posse posts, to Nathan Branch, who provided a crucial bit of advice at the right moment, and a big shout-out to all of the readers of Grain de Musc who contributed so many thoughtful comments to my blog.

Thank you to my London support team, Laurent Delaye, Clare Bradley, Basia Szkutnicka, Kit Davis, Nicola Stephens and Silvia Pezzali; to Guy Scarpetta and Rachel Laurent for the house at the back of the garden where I wrote several chapters, and to Catherine Greslot, who made sure I was decently fed while I was shackled to my keyboard.

I also tenderly dedicate this book to the memory of Fabiana Leonor Heifetz, who gave me more love, advice and support during the brief months of our friendship than most people could in a lifetime.

And finally, un beso to Enrique, wherever he is. He knows the real story.