Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent

Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent is by Mandy Aftel, an artisan natural perfumer who runs Aftelier Perfumes and curates the Aftel Archive of Curious Scents in Berkeley, California. Published in October 2014 by Riverhead Books (Penguin Random House) as a 288-page hardcover, the book is written from decades of hands-on craft experience rather than as a desk critic's overview.

Its structure is its strongest idea: five chapters, each built around a single aromatic material - cinnamon, mint, frankincense, ambergris and jasmine - and each tied to a different human appetite the material seems to satisfy, from the exotic (cinnamon) to the transcendent (frankincense) to the curious (ambergris). Each chapter mixes natural history, cultural history and personal essay, and the book closes each section with practical recipes so readers can experiment with naturals themselves, in food, drink or simple fragrance-making. Publishers Weekly called it a 'sensuous and profound exploration', and it was named one of Time and Flavorwire's Best Fall Reads of 2014 before going on to win the 2016 Perfumed Plume Award for fragrance writing.

For UK readers, two things are worth flagging. First, this is a naturals-only book - readers wanting coverage of modern synthetic aromachemicals or mainstream commercial perfumery should look to a different title, such as Perfumes: The Guide. Second, the book is thoroughly American in its sourcing, sensibility and (in the ambergris chapter) legal framing, so UK/EU rules on ingredients like ambergris are not addressed and should be checked separately. Within that naturals-and-craft lane, though, it is a genuinely well-regarded and rewarding read.