The US Publication of The Perfumer’s Secret

On 1 December 2026, the US edition of The Perfumer’s Secret will be published by HarperCollins US - and I still find it amazing to write those words!

I vividly remember receiving a text from my agent, Rebecca Ritchie, asking me to call her because she had some exciting news. My phone was almost out of battery, so I had to wait until I got home and could charge it before I called.

The news was that The Perfumer’s Secret had been acquired by Sara Nelson at HarperCollins US.

A US publishing deal had never been something I expected, and to have it happen with my second book took me completely by surprise. Just over a year after the UK publication, The Perfumer’s Secret is about to begin a new journey across the Atlantic.

The words between the covers are the same as the UK edition, but it's been given a new blurb, which I think captures the story beautifully:

Set during the darkest days of World War II, an unforgettable historical novel about love, war, and family told in the voices of two women, generations apart, connected by perfume and a mysterious journal.

With her family’s perfumery in dire straits Stella Penhallam must uncover the secrets of their past to save their future.

Stella believes she may have stumbled upon the miracle she needs when her great-aunt’s journal from 1940s Paris finds its way to her. Within the diary are a handful of missing pages that may hold the answers to restoring her family’s business and luster. Reading her aunt’s words, she is transported back eighty years, to a time when darkness engulfed the City of Light. . . .

As war engulfs Europe in September 1939, Iris Penhallam finds herself in an impossible situation that will bring her world crashing down. Within months, the Nazis have easily broken French defenses, and Paris is no longer safe. Nor is Italy, where her mentor’s family are threatened by Mussolini’s fascist thugs. With no one to turn to for help, saving them falls to Iris alone. Using her position as a perfumer, she travels to Venice on the legendary Orient Express under the guise of meeting her fellow apprentice, Alessandro, to continue their work creating five intoxicating new scents. Five scents that will be lost amid the chaos of the war, along with the man Iris loves.

As Stella delves deeper into her aunt’s life, past and present begin to intertwine, bringing together the fates of these two women—each chasing five scents that will save them and forge their futures.

If you're in the US and will be discovering The Perfumer’s Secret for the first time, I'd love to hear from you. What draws you to historical fiction? Do you have a favourite story set during the Second World War? And, perhaps most importantly, what is it about perfume, scent and memory that fascinates you?

And to those of you who have been with me since the UK publication, I'm so grateful for all your support. I hope you'll enjoy coming along with me as The Perfumer’s Secret begins this new chapter, and I look forward to sharing more of the journey with you over the coming months.

Whether you've already read the book or are about to discover it for the first time, I'd love to hear your thoughts and questions along the way.