One of my earliest scent memories is full of almonds, violets, chestnuts and Madame Rochas. My mother was getting ready for a dinner party and had made her best pudding, led petits soufflés Elisbeth, so the kitchen was redolent of crushed ratafia biscuits, crystallised violets and macaron glacés that had been folded into cream. Pregnant with my brother, my mother was wearing a magnificent maternity top of black watered silk, decorated with a swirling ruby, emerald and gold dragon. It’s half a century ago, but the scents are as vivid in my memory as that glamorous swirling dragon and their magical soufflés.

Daphne Wright - Prefred