Perfume from Provence - Couverture souple

The original story of falling for France, "Perfume from Provence" was first published in 1935 and became a best-seller. Winifred Fortescue was an actress who rubbed shoulders with the likes of Jerome K. Jerome and George Bernard Shaw when she married Sir John Fortescue, the king's librarian and archivist and famous historian of the British Army. Tempted by a better climate and the cheaper cost of living, they left England and found a stone house amid olive groves, high in the hills above Nice. Almost at once they were bewitched by the landscape and especially their garden - delightful terraces of vines, wild flowers, roses and lavender - and by the charming, warm-hearted and wily Provencals. Winifred's witty account of life with stonemasons, craftsmen and gardeners as they extend the house is an enchanting read.

Born in 1888, Winifred Fortescue gave up her career on the stage after marriage and founded a successful fashion and interior design business. She later began writing articles for The Times and Punch, and inaugurated a woman's page for The Morning Post. She wrote seven books, of which Perfume from Provence was the first.