We are currently unable to process orders for destinations within the EU, due to changes in tariffs. Please contact books@lrbshop.co.uk for further advice

Smell

Bjørn Berge

£18.00

We send all orders via Royal Mail: within the UK, choose from 1st Class, 2nd Class or Special Delivery; for the rest of the world, International Standard or International Tracked. Delivery and packaging charges are calculated automatically at the checkout.

To collect orders in person from the Bookshop, choose Click and Collect at the checkout.


Reaktion Books
1 July 2026
ISBN: 9781836392507
Hardback
256 pages

From the publisher

The sense of smell is often linked to the dark, the antisocial, the primitive - the very opposite of modernity and progress. Today we live in an almost odourless world, where everything is reduced to images. Yet smell plays a vital role in how we relate to others and our surroundings, forming our experiences and our memories. Tracing a history of smell from the first ancient cities, through medieval plagues and the Industrial Revolution to the present day, this book is a tribute to the sense of smell in all its beauty and disgust. Along the way Bjorn Berge introduces us to twenty iconic scents - from blood and soil to the ocean - and invites readers to reflect on and reawaken their senses.