Shem-el-Nessim: An Inspiration In Perfume

‘Shem-el-Nessim’ (subtitled ‘An Inspiration In Perfume’) was inspired by an advertisement for a real perfume of that name (the cover of this e-book). After more advertisements and packaging for J. Grossmith & Son, Distillers of Perfumes (the firm fictionalised in the story) were discovered on the internet, Stan Tooprig, the mystery woman and the story’s Cairo Gazette journalist narrator came alive. In a piece of synchronicity in the real world, Grossmith Limited was recently resurrected and its managing director contacted the author to ask how he came to write ‘Shem-el-Nessim’: “It was partly because of your description of Stan Tooprig in the story that I thought you had some special insight into the Grossmith family,” says Simon Brooke, a Grossmith descendant himself. 'Shem-el-Nessim' was first published in Zahir magazine, issue 13, Summer 2007 (US); and the Postscripts 18, ‘This Is The Summer of Love’ New Writers Special, 2009 (UK). In April 2010, Ellen Datlow gave the story an honourable mention in the anthology Best Horror of the Year, Volume 2, published by Night Shade Books, and it subsequently appeared in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 21, published by Constable & Robinson, 2010, edited by Stephen Jones. It also appears in The Five Senses of Horror, edited by Eric J. Guignard and with commentary by psychologist K. H. Vaughan PhD, published by Dark Moon Books in 2017. By the author of Liquidambar ( Songshifting ( The Concentrated Essence of Any Number of Ravens ( and Saccade (