Life In Scents

Hawthorne and Pink May Sniff and Scream with James Craven: Episode 3  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Patchouli and The Incredibly Strange Bed Sniff and Scream with James Craven: Episode 2  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sniff and Scream with James Craven: Episode 1  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our guest on Life in Scents this month is His Excellency Williams Nkurunziza, who is the High Commissioner of the Republic of Rwanda to the United Kingdom and non-resident Ambassador to Ireland. With a diplomatic career that follows years in industry, His Excellency is also a poet, and his recent volume ranges across Rwanda's painful recent history and the drive towards rebuilding the country in the aftermath of genocide. We talked with him about the olfactory scentscapes of his home, from coffee plantations to gorilla-spotting at altitude.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this special edition of Life in Scents, we map the smells and stenches of the city, as Dr Victoria Henshaw, Lecturer in Urban Design and Planning at Sheffield University, shares her work in understanding the olfactory character of the urban. Victoria's talk, hosted at Angela Flanders' perfumery in East London to a public audience, was recorded immediately following a smell tour round Spitalfields which Odette had organised. From the scent implications of urban zoning to the creation of scents for perfuming town centres and the ethics of whiffy street ads, get ready to resniff your street. Victoria's book, Urban Smellscapes, was recently published by Routledge, and her website is: smellandthecity.wordpress.com/  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Benjamin Hebbert, a London-based dealer in stringed instruments, is one of the world’s foremost experts on violins and instrument making. A former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and European Specialist for Christie’s auction house, Benjamin how buys and sells for a client base of professional musicians, for whom he helps find the perfect instrument. The world of strings is unexpectedly, one where an absence of smells is a mark of quality and authenticity. Odour is a sign that something might not be quite right, as Benjamin explained to us….  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Developmental psychologist, Professor Uta Frith takes the hotseat in the latest edition of Life in Scents. One of the most formidable neuroscientists of her generation, particularly in the field of autism, she also loves perfume - taking listeners on a tour of her garden, lifting the lid on her box of German ointments and unguents reminiscent of childhood, and sharing the importance of spending time to enjoy beautiful scented objects and fragrances. By the end, you may well be keen to try her recipe for Maibowle, an aromatised wine made with sweet woodruff...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We take an olfactory walk into the life of the flaneur in this month’s Life in Scents, as we meet Matthew Beaumont, an academic at University College London who specialises in the cultural history of the city. Matthew gives his take on some fragrances of the Flaneur, the difference between day and nighttime smells, and the smells encountered by the walker as they go about the metropolis.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With his acts ranging from CAMP - a celebration of variety showpresenting - to Hamburger Queen, a fat beauty pageant, Scottee is a truly unique performance artist, journalist and director who has collaborated with the Barbican, the Royal Opera House, the Royal Festival Hall, and even the X Factor. Scottee also happens to be a perfume-fanatic, and in Life in Scents he discusses why he thinks perfume and class (that British sticking point…) are wrapped up in each other, and how he uses particular fragrances with each of his shows, often bringing some unusual audience interactions…  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Get a cup of coffee ready before listening to our latest edition of Life in Scents, as we meet Ben Townsend, one of the UK's most respected barista trainers. Ben's tiny coffee shop in London's Bloomsbury is a mecca to lovers of the bean, and we took a trip to Ben's basement to learn the art of cupping to experience the complex aromas in properly brewed coffee (our noses were truly put to the test!). We also hear about his Life in Scents - a childhood spent with craft glue and making models in his bedroom onto collecting vinyl...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of Life in Scents Jo Barratt speaks to Gabriel Stebbing, the man otherwise known as Night Works, ahead of the release of his debut album Urban Heat Island. Gabriel recalls the cooking smells growing up in the homes of his respective parents. We hear of Lynx Africa (Axe to International listeners) in suburban...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Richard Wentworth has been a major player in New British Sculpture for over thirty years. His work often focusses on the idea of objects and questions our understanding of them within the context of our daily lives. In this episode of life in Scents he talks to Jo Barratt about his relationship with smell. Chemical, glue and workshop smells sit alongside a consideration of how we think about and relate smell in a wider sense. As well as many other things Richard muses on the meaning that humans ascribe to that moment after a thunderstorm and how ideas of ‘clean’ or ‘dirty’ relate to how we see ourselves within the world, as well as his hatred of perfumed candle shops.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Scissors and tape-measures at the ready for this episode Life in Scents, as tailor Timothy Everest MBE shares some of his favourite smells. For over two decades, Timothy has designed bespoke suits for prime-ministers, musicians and screen icons from his workshop in Spitalfields, East London  - including costumes for the recent film adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. From the workplace smells of hot irons and chalk to his impressive wardrobe of fragrances, and the patchouli wafts of his time training with Timmy Nutter (outfitter to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones) Timothy brings to life the olfactory world of the sartorialist, whether the perfect cologne, or the scent of a good tweed.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Astronomer Marek Kukula is our guest on the latest episode Life in Scents. Based at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, Marek’s role is as public astronomer, translating and communicating the latest in space discovery for the public. Marek shares with us some theories on what the planets or inter-stellar gas might smell like (if we could survive the experience to tell the tale). He talks about the aromas he associates with the eerioly remote, high-altitude observatories at which he has spent nights watching the stars, and jolts us back to earth when remembering the scents of butterfly hunting in the English countryside as a child, or the smells of the Rock gigs he was dragged along to as a student in Manchester.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This time on Life in Scents we sit down for a cup of tea (or five) with Henrietta Lovell, founder of The Rare Tea Company. Henrietta quit her job in packaging to find and import fine teas made by hand, and is utterly passionate about the subject and its associated smells. We hear of her memories of sitting by Lapsang Souchong smoking-huts and of swooning from the scent of jasmine flowers mingling with tea on Chinese mountain tops. Outside of tea, we hear about her love of all sorts of organic scents, of hidden bits of parks and of her grandmother prescribing her first perfume.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Gerhart Jenne is the konditormeister behind London bakery Konditor & Cook, who’s famed confections include Magic Cakes, over 3,000 of which will be put together to create a giant ‘cake’ portrait of the Queen for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Together with partner Paul Cons he oversees a small empire which now occupies 6 distinct locations across central London. Gerhardt recalls the nostalgic, and not always pleasant, smells from his childhood in rural Germany, as well as many more from a career spent immersed in food. We also hear of Paul’s childhood smell recollections as well as those from his time running Flesh, at Manchester’s legendary nightclub, The Hacienda.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This time on Life in Scents, we meet legendary bartender Tony Conigliaro, whose drinks grace bar menus around the world and who loves nothing more than to introduce techniques from perfumery and science into his work, developing new ideas at his London-based research centre, Drinks Factory. Tony talks about why Soho to him will always smell of violets (and not in a good way), how he once used camphor to create a Narnian wardrobe moment, and how he managed to turn a memory of walking in a peaceful Portland forest into a drink. Tony also reveals an early interest in fragrance, starting with miniature-scent-bottle collecting in his teenage years.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This time on Life in Scents, we welcome landscape designer Cleve West who has won an incredible six RHS Gold Medals and Best in Show award at the Chelsea Flower show for his beautiful and innovative gardens. Naturally, Cleve gets stuck into the scent of manure, forests and sniffing out deer through the park, reveals why he has a thing for plasticine, and shares his Anglo-Indian Heritage, including the unforgettable aromas of curry leaves and how to make the perfect cup of aromatic Chai.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this special seasonal edition of Life in Scents Jo Barratt and Odette Toilette speak to Father Christmas.  Known by several names around the world this legendary elusive figure is the man perhaps most associated with This time of year. We hear about the smells that have punctuated his life, from his childhood in central Asia to his current home in the north of Europe.  It is a life  drenched in the warming Christmas smells that we are all so familiar with. We also learn what an elf smells like, that time travel smells of coconut and the connection between Old Spice and the Northern Lights.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our guest on this edition of Life in Scents is S.J. Watson, a new writer whose novel, Before I Go to Sleep, has been a huge bestseller in 2011. Winner of best crime novel in the Galaxy National Book awards, it has been translated into 30 languages and acquired for film by Ridley Scott’s production company. S J Watson’s vivid scent memories which he shares in this episode include the Bonfire Nights of his childhood, the unmistakable smell of an ear infection from his days working in the National Health Service, and his penchant for unusual fragrances, including a scent that smells of dry cleaning and another of garages.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.