But if the title lacks poetic fun, the book most certainly does not. Although the language occasionally dips into the kind of hyperbolic floweriness one perhaps must expect from enthusiastic connoisseurs, on the whole it is written with pleasing plainness and, most of all, a sense of humour. Guerlain’s Mouchoir de Monsieur is lauded with an adulatory four-star review and readers are advised that “if you can wear it without thinking of Rupert Everett playing Beau Brummell, do so by all means”, while something called Montana Mood Sexy is dismissed with one star and a curt “not tonight”.
— From Talking scents: Hadley Freeman meets Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez, a couple united by their passion for perfume, who have written a sniffer’s guide to help us distinguish the ‘whippet-like’ from the ‘slutty’. At the Guardian.
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Thanks so much – I only get The Guardian on a Saturday, and then not always. I had to go out and buy the hard copy, also because there was a special supplement on British attitudes to alcohol, which looked interesting. Well… speaking for myself, I like it!
If it's in the Guardian, it's in the Big Time. Lol.
Hopefully now my nearest bookshop will stock the book, which I am planning to take with me on holiday. It strikes me as perfect holiday reading. So many bookshops rely solely on press coverage when deciding to stock or no.
Gosh, what are British attitudes to alcohol? If my few trips to London are any indication, they're pretty darned pro-alcohol.
I think the book is just launching in the UK this week, so you should be able to find it soon if not now.
You can say that again, R! The Brits are the drunkards of Europe these days. Once upon a time it was the French. It's an absolute disgrace.
There was an article in nyt.com recently about British tourists going to Greece on holiday drunkfests and generally behaving badly. I was sort of shocked, thinking all along that Americans were the worst behaved tourists.
Existentialist & Bela — the last I was in London (MANY moons ago, so not indicative of current attitudes) I was taken on something called a Circle Line Pub Crawl — you know, you got on the Circle Line, got off at every stop & went to a pub. It was not an exercise for the faint of heart. The British appeared plenty willing to drink to excess then. As was I. Such an evening would probably kill me now.
you can order this book on amazon also.
I don't binge drink on pub crawls but I do this other thing they criticise in the article, which is steady in-home drinking through the week. I don't usually exceed the units recommended – well, maybe a bit sometimes…
Ah well. Never believe what you read in the papers anyway, right?
Haha! Ah well, it's like The Guide – I agree with what I want to!
The Brits are the worst-behaved tourists ever (it used to be the Germans, apparently). It is thought to come from still believing the entire world belongs to them, you know, from the days of the British Empire.
I'm sure it's not your case, Vanessa, but they've shown on TV how women especially get it wrong when it comes to units: they greatly underestimate their alcohol consumption.
It's coming out today – just like mine in France. LOL!
That's a very good point Bela, but I once had a suspected blood disorder which the docs thought might be due to an intolerance to alcohol, so I had to have blood tests over six months whilst abstaning, then drinking different nos of units per week! This meant I got really scientific and anal about what was a unit of wine or beer of whatever strength and glass/bottle size etc. But a lot of my mates think “a drink” is a unit! When I tell the doctor nowadays I am drinking 14 or 17 units it is accurate, but I am sure they err on the side of caution by routinely adding 50% to the estimates of patients!
Huge congrats, J — that must be a great feeling!
I am afraid I couldn't contain my curiosity till it was out officially in Britain and ordered it from Amazon US last April I think.