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A review by textpublishing
The Case Against Fragrance by Kate Grenville
5.0
Kate Grenville looks at the way artificial fragrances have negatively impacted her life. Like many people, Kate gets migraines from perfume, cleaning products and other artificial fragrances. This is her first scientifically researched non-fiction book that looks into the negative health effects of wearing––and being surrounded by––fragrances.
This book will make you hyper-aware of the everyday products that unnecessarily contain fragrances–washing powders, bin liners, air fresheners, deodorants. You will get on a train and realise how many people are wearing perfume and, if you’re an unlucky person like Kate, start to feel a headache coming on.
What’s interesting about The Case Against Fragrance is that so many people are affected in this way. Kate uses examples from people around the world where they suffer from mild hay fever-like allergies to being hospitalised because they can’t breathe.
Kate’s research is astounding, particularly because there was so little to go on in the first place. She talks about social effects–that some workplaces have implemented anti-fragrance policies. She talks about health consequences–that we don’t actually know what our bodies are absorbing and what’s happening to us. And she talks about her own navigation through workplaces, book tours and everyday life.
Kate writes about her own experiences as well as her social and scientific research on the history of fragrances and their health effects. This book is engaging, thought-provoking and will make you think twice about spraying perfume each morning.
‘One spritz of aftershave or perfume can leave other people retching and clutching their heads—you never see that in the ads.’
Kaz Cooke
‘Beginning with her own physical reaction to fragrance that begins with a headache a lot of us know ourselves, she investigates the fragrance industry and its side-effects and interweaves these facts with the personal to create an accessible work of non-fiction.’
ArtsHub
‘By 2015, Grenville was getting headaches from those stinky diffusers in taxis, from washing powder, from scented candles, and was sprinting through hotel foyers with a scarf over her nose. But instead of going mad, Grenville did what she does best: fixed her intelligent and discerning eye on the problem. This reader started out sceptical and ended up convinced: we have hardly any idea what goes into the manufactured smells we surround ourselves with. Read this, and gasp.’
Courier Mail
‘This book is based on careful research into the science of scent and the power of the fragrance industry. But, as you’d expect from an acclaimed novelist, it’s also accessible and personal.’
Better Read Than Dead
‘Face-dense and extensively referenced, the book is a delight to read and never gets bogged down…While some of the science has been simplified, the book generally conveys the sense of it correctly…Well developed and thoughtful. Read The Case Against Fragrance and you will never think about fragrance in the same way again. If you have been suffering fragrance in silence, you will know you are not alone.’
Conversation
‘In this appealingly written exploration, Kate uncovers the dark side of the fragrance industry, from the carcinogens in after-shave to the hormone disruptors in perfume that mimic oestrogen.’
Child
‘Readable, interesting and informative.’
Big Book Club
‘Grenville expresses hope though that our society will find solutions to the fragrant violation of personal space based on courtesy and civility rather than on regulation and policy.’
Australian Book Review
‘You may be familiar with Australian novelist Kate Grenville’s work but she enters new territory here. After exposure to perfumes and scents delivered ill-health her way, Grenville got curious as to why…The result is a fascinating (and worrying) exposé of the potentially damaging health effects of fragrances and the laxity of their regulation. Grenville digs into the science of scent as well as the intrigue of a multi-billion-dollar industry and makes it beautifully accessible in the process.’
WellBeing
‘The Orange Prize-winning novelist’s discovery that she reacts badly to the artificial fragrances all around us led her to investigate what is in fragrances, what it does to people and whether it is properly tested for safety…The result is this accessible and personal book on the science of fragrance.’
Bookseller
‘[Grenville] raises valuable questions about the potentially harmful chemicals surrounding us every day and why we so unabashedly live in ignorance of them.’
Reader’s Digest UK, Best New Books to Read This Summer
‘Grenville sets out to unlock the dark science—the volatile compounds, conspiracies and carcinogens—hiding in perfume, the ingredients of which are regularly listed as alcohol, water and the mysterious catch-all “fragrance”.’
New Statesman
‘In some places, though, the danger [of fragrance] is beginning to be taken as seriously as passive smoking 30 years ago…it sounds silly, until you read Kate Grenville’s explosive exposé and wonder why no one ever told you this stuff before.’
Mail on Sunday
‘An accessible, intelligent, seriously researched—and terrifying—book.’
Daily Mail UK
This book will make you hyper-aware of the everyday products that unnecessarily contain fragrances–washing powders, bin liners, air fresheners, deodorants. You will get on a train and realise how many people are wearing perfume and, if you’re an unlucky person like Kate, start to feel a headache coming on.
What’s interesting about The Case Against Fragrance is that so many people are affected in this way. Kate uses examples from people around the world where they suffer from mild hay fever-like allergies to being hospitalised because they can’t breathe.
Kate’s research is astounding, particularly because there was so little to go on in the first place. She talks about social effects–that some workplaces have implemented anti-fragrance policies. She talks about health consequences–that we don’t actually know what our bodies are absorbing and what’s happening to us. And she talks about her own navigation through workplaces, book tours and everyday life.
Kate writes about her own experiences as well as her social and scientific research on the history of fragrances and their health effects. This book is engaging, thought-provoking and will make you think twice about spraying perfume each morning.
‘One spritz of aftershave or perfume can leave other people retching and clutching their heads—you never see that in the ads.’
Kaz Cooke
‘Beginning with her own physical reaction to fragrance that begins with a headache a lot of us know ourselves, she investigates the fragrance industry and its side-effects and interweaves these facts with the personal to create an accessible work of non-fiction.’
ArtsHub
‘By 2015, Grenville was getting headaches from those stinky diffusers in taxis, from washing powder, from scented candles, and was sprinting through hotel foyers with a scarf over her nose. But instead of going mad, Grenville did what she does best: fixed her intelligent and discerning eye on the problem. This reader started out sceptical and ended up convinced: we have hardly any idea what goes into the manufactured smells we surround ourselves with. Read this, and gasp.’
Courier Mail
‘This book is based on careful research into the science of scent and the power of the fragrance industry. But, as you’d expect from an acclaimed novelist, it’s also accessible and personal.’
Better Read Than Dead
‘Face-dense and extensively referenced, the book is a delight to read and never gets bogged down…While some of the science has been simplified, the book generally conveys the sense of it correctly…Well developed and thoughtful. Read The Case Against Fragrance and you will never think about fragrance in the same way again. If you have been suffering fragrance in silence, you will know you are not alone.’
Conversation
‘In this appealingly written exploration, Kate uncovers the dark side of the fragrance industry, from the carcinogens in after-shave to the hormone disruptors in perfume that mimic oestrogen.’
Child
‘Readable, interesting and informative.’
Big Book Club
‘Grenville expresses hope though that our society will find solutions to the fragrant violation of personal space based on courtesy and civility rather than on regulation and policy.’
Australian Book Review
‘You may be familiar with Australian novelist Kate Grenville’s work but she enters new territory here. After exposure to perfumes and scents delivered ill-health her way, Grenville got curious as to why…The result is a fascinating (and worrying) exposé of the potentially damaging health effects of fragrances and the laxity of their regulation. Grenville digs into the science of scent as well as the intrigue of a multi-billion-dollar industry and makes it beautifully accessible in the process.’
WellBeing
‘The Orange Prize-winning novelist’s discovery that she reacts badly to the artificial fragrances all around us led her to investigate what is in fragrances, what it does to people and whether it is properly tested for safety…The result is this accessible and personal book on the science of fragrance.’
Bookseller
‘[Grenville] raises valuable questions about the potentially harmful chemicals surrounding us every day and why we so unabashedly live in ignorance of them.’
Reader’s Digest UK, Best New Books to Read This Summer
‘Grenville sets out to unlock the dark science—the volatile compounds, conspiracies and carcinogens—hiding in perfume, the ingredients of which are regularly listed as alcohol, water and the mysterious catch-all “fragrance”.’
New Statesman
‘In some places, though, the danger [of fragrance] is beginning to be taken as seriously as passive smoking 30 years ago…it sounds silly, until you read Kate Grenville’s explosive exposé and wonder why no one ever told you this stuff before.’
Mail on Sunday
‘An accessible, intelligent, seriously researched—and terrifying—book.’
Daily Mail UK