I’m participating in the Edinburgh International Book Festival this year, and I hope to meet some of you there. I will be in conversation with the Nigerian writer Emmanuel Iduma about loss, inheritance and the impact of war on families.

Victoria Belim & Emmanuel Iduma: Lost Legacies, Hidden Histories
Tue 15 Aug 13:30 – 14:30 Baillie Gifford Sculpture Court
Baillie Gifford Sculpture Court
You can attend in person or watch online by following this link.

Victoria Belim & Emmanuel Iduma: Lost Legacies, Hidden Histories
Authors Victoria Belim and Emmanuel Iduma share their personal, moving experiences, discussing the interplay between global forces and personal histories. They have a dogged shared commitment to unearthing the past – Belim in The Rooster House, tying family secrets to Ukraine’s hidden history; and Iduma in I Am Still With You, part-memoir, part-political reckoning tracing his roots amongst those displaced by the Nigerian Civil War. Chaired by Marjorie Lotfi.

Watch online
Available live, then on-demand until 00:00 on Saturday 30 September.

I visited Edinburgh once before, but I still don’t know the city well. If you have any recommendations on what to visit and see, I would be grateful.

The tonka bean, one of my favorite ingredients looks unprepossessing—a shriveled black pod covered with suspicious white bloom. However, its scent of toasted almonds, amarena cherries, sun warmed hay and vanilla custard is one of the luscious in a perfumer’s palette. What’s more, the tonka bean was responsible for a revolution in modern perfumery.

Tonka beans, the seeds of the Dipteryx Odorata tree native to South America, contain a component called coumarin. It’s present in many herbs and plants, including lavender, figs, and cherry leaves, but tonka beans are so rich in this aromatic that it crystallizes to the surface of their skin. Indeed, the very name coumarin comes from a French word for the tonka bean, coumarou. Coumarin was first isolated from tonka beans in the 1820s, and in 1882 it became the first synthetic material to be used in a perfume. To create a fantasy accord inspired by ferns, perfumer Paul Parquet added coumarin to the classical eau de cologne blend of citrus, lavender and geranium. Notes of amber, musk and oakmoss filled in the rest of the composition and Houbigant’s Fougère Royale was born. Along with it, came a new family of fragrances called fougère, which in French meant “fern.”

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My book The Rooster House was selected as “Book of the Week” by BBC Radio 4. In anticipation, my book is featured twice in their latest issue – in their ‘On Our Bookshelf’ section and also in their weekly highlights section. I’m thrilled that my work is recognized this way, and I’m beyond delighted to be on the same page as Hercule Poirot.

Starting today, you can listen to The Rooster House being read by the British-Ukrainian actress Vera Graziadie via https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001p6rk. A new chapter will be aired each day this week. Vera’s reading is masterful and it’s going to be a treat. I hope that you will enjoy it.

You can find the list upcoming broadcasts via BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001p6rk/broadcasts/upcoming

Spend a day in Catania, a baroque jewel on the east coast of Sicily, and you will understand why Boudoir 36, an artisanal perfume boutique, is such a great fit for this exuberant city. Every scent, taste and color seems more intense—jasmine draping the building facades, oranges piled into ziggurats on the sidewalks, and even the blue of the sky with a dark triangle of Mount Etna. The perfume selection at Boudoir 36 can rival the finest boutiques in Paris and London, but its flamboyance and opulence are uniquely Sicilian.

Once behind the heavy red curtain of Boudoir 36, you leave behind the bustle of Via Santa Filomena and discover a calm, dark oasis. ‘Boudoir’ is an appropriate name; the boutique is small, only 22 square meters, and it has the intimate ambiance of a private salon. There are shelves upon shelves of perfume bottles, crystal glasses of scent strips, gilded candles, and soaps wrapped in colorful paper. Flowers spill out of vases in baroque arrangements and crystal chandeliers cast a soft glow over the antique furniture.

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Our “Recommend Me a Perfume” thread is open this week. You can use this space to find perfume recommendations, to share your discoveries and favorite scents, and to ask any questions about scents, aromas and flavors. Or you can just tell us what perfume you are wearing!

How does it work: 1. Please post your requests or questions as comments here. You can also use this space to ask any fragrance related questions. To receive recommendations that are better tailored to your tastes, you can include details on what you like and don’t like, your signature perfumes, and your budget. And please let us know what you end up sampling. 2. Then please check the thread to see if there are other requests you can answer. Your responses are really valuable for navigating the big and sometimes confusing world of perfume, so let’s help each other!

To make this thread easier to read, when you reply to someone, please click on the blue “reply” link under their comment.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin