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Columnists - Walker Minton

3 found. Showing stories 1 to 3, with most recent first.

• Double Deckers, Disappointments and Excellence

  

  by Walker Minton, 01 August 2009

  Front seats on the top deck of a London bus are always in demand. Every time I climb the stairs and turn the ninety degrees at the top, I hope one of them is free. Sitting there seems to be one of those rare pleasures which never diminish with age, the incredible unwieldiness of the vehicle distilled into that one small area, making it somewhat like a fairground ride. In every other seat, the journey is mundane but here it is a rollercoaster of just missed tree branches and building corners....

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• Time to get serious

  

  by Walker Minton, 02 June 2009

  When the going gets tough in real life and especially when I am reminded of mortality, wearing fragrance may be thought to be trivial. Not for me. While it is definitely not the most important thing for me to focus on, the unavoidable reality of smell in itself it becomes more earnest, more serious and substantial along with everything else. At times like these, I am reminded of visceral, non-cerebral, bodily reality. I wish for the smell of reassuring natural things rather than that of ideas, echoes or shadows of nature. I crave the soft complexity that brings feelings of comfort and solidity rather than recognisable and impressive constructions of building bricks; all sharp edges, straight lines and uniform components. I avoid the superficial; trivial smells are for trivial times (or times so serious that triviality itself becomes a serious commodity, but fortunately I have not lived through war). With life in normal proportions, a perfume interacts with all aspects of life, fears, anxieties, stresses, the bad parts as well as the good....

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• Britain’s Jermyn Gentlemen

  

  by Walker Minton, 01 April 2009

  Sometimes the most interesting journeys are very short ones. A wander down Jermyn Street behind Piccadilly, London is no exception. Trumpers, Floris and Czech & Speake all have shop fronts there; much of the quintessential British perfume tradition is available in the space of a few yards. ...

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