Guiseley author on the scent of her family's perfume history (From Wharfedale Observer)

Guiseley author on the scent of her family's perfume history

11:10am Thursday 6th September 2007

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Intriguing snippets of information about a great-aunt have led to the publication of a book set in the fragrant world of the perfume business in the 1920s.

Ruth Estevez was captivated by the small clues which emerged about her great-aunt Tessa when her father was researching the family history.

And now she has written a novel based loosely on the story of Tessa and her sprawling family of six brothers and two sisters.

Ruth , who was brought up in Hawksworth, and went to school in Hawksworth and Guiseley - said: "From the late 1920's, my great-aunt worked in London for the Coty Corporation and the book is based loosely on the dynamics of her large catholic Spanish family and their declining fortunes set against her interest in perfume and in particular, Francois Coty."

Her great-aunt's connection with Coty had been rediscovered about 16 years ago when her father was looking into the history of the family which had first come over from Spain in the 1800s.

She said: "All the family seemed to have dissipated but he found that my great-aunt had worked for Coty. He found the names of her family, all of her brothers and sisters, where they went to school and where they lived."

They discovered lots of intriguing snippets of information - including the strange fact that while the boys went to school in Spain the girls were educated in Belgium - and Ruth built on these to create her first published novel.

And with the current surge of interest in vintage perfumes she is hoping Meeting Coty will take off.

She said the perfume company had been happy to help with her research.

"I wrote to Coty and they sent me a beautiful book to borrow from their archives and it had a lot of information and photographs."

And now Coty's New York office have got a copy of her book, which she says is about choices and the repercussions of choice.

"It is about how love can be magical and all consuming but it can also destroy you - it is about how family can be comforting but also claustrophobic."

Ruth, who worked in stage-management on Emmerdale and as a writer for the children's TV series, Bob the Builder, is now a visiting lecturer in Scriptwriting at Manchester Metropolitan University, and is working on her next novel.

Meeting Coty is published by Kings Hart Books, Oxford. It is available at www.Amazon.co.uk, www.kingshartbooks.co.uk.

It can also be obtained at any reputable bookshop, including The Grove Bookshop in Ilkley.

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