Heaven scent

The Grand Inquisitor could smell heresy in any book just as the Lord Chancellor could smell sexual innuendo in any playscript. But now an Italian perfumier has decided to create the smells she imagines from Proust (vanilla) to Oscar Wilde (violets).

The Grand Inquisitor could smell heresy in any book just as the Lord Chancellor could smell sexual innuendo in any playscript. But now an Italian perfumier has decided to create the smells she imagines from Proust (vanilla) to Oscar Wilde (violets).

She is right. The fifth sense is the forgotten one. The English only notice it when it's bad, which tells us something about our character, and the French when it is overplayed, which tells us something about theirs. But for most of us, memory does come with smell. If only someone could recreate the aroma of new mown grass, clean sheets and stolen kisses.