Coty

I've just had pointed out to me a new book on Amazon and available elsewhere about Francois Coty, the perfume maker. It's titled, "Francois Coty: Frangrance, Power, Money" by Roulhac Toledano and Elizabeth Coty. It's in hardback.

Whilst researching Francois Coty for my novel, "Meeting Coty" I found out what a fascinating life this man had. He was the most successful and richest perfume maker of his generation. He introduced what we take for granted now as perfume in interesting bottles, of packaging, themed displays, mass marketing, mass production, making perfume affordable for everyone. He wasn't just a brilliant perfume maker but also a salesman and business man. His innovations seem forgotten now. If they are recognised now through a renewed interest in the man, this is good news. Alan Sugar should take note! Beat Coty if you can.

As 'Meeting Coty' only touches on Francois Coty's life, so 'Leaving Coty' deals in depth with it. Tessa gets beneath his skin. And when that happens, when you grow to care for someone, it is never as easy as you would think to leave them. Even though I wanted to finish a relationship with a past boyfriend, it took me over a year to actually do so. Ties can be stronger than we imagine and letting them go isn't a case of you being in control, it's when the ties allow themselves to break.

Sisters

There are three sisters in Meeting Coty. The eldest, Maraquita, thinks she is the only one that cares for everyone else in the household. She is a great organiser. She is a 'doer.' She holds the structure of everyone's day together, so that meals appear, beds are changed, clothes mended, windows cleaned, all daily tasks occur and everyone knows about it.
Only when the others don't help in small tasks when asked does the anger that is smouldering in her, erupt. And it does so for what seems like unexpected reasons. So when Maraquita and Tessa physically fight in the dining room,it is about more than Tessa wanting to leave the house for the afternoon rather than sort out the linen.
Tessa is the middle sister. She rises early once a week to snap heads off her mother's flower displays, carries them upstairs, where she drowns them in a sink filled with water in early attempts to make perfume. She dreams of escaping her large family to work for another family, that of Francois Coty, the famous perfume maker. She follows his rise as, unknown to her, her family's fortunes are falling. She wants a career, whilst her sisters want love. Maraquita yearns for their mother's love, Carmen, for life and finally a man.
Carmen, the youngest, elopes from their convent school in Belgium, with the gardener's son. For her, all that matters is her love for him. Life is simple. If she wants something, she doesn't ask anyone's permission, she merely pursues her desire.
Three women with three viewpoints. At this stage, they are not aware of there being any other way but their own to tackle life. In Leaving Coty, the sequel to Meeting Coty, they begin to look outside themselves and at each other. Sisters. It's complicated. Are love and hate more closely related within the family unit than elsewhere?

Communication

Tessa thinks she is close to her father, but he tells her nothing. He's not being perverse, it is just the way he is. He feels a special bond with her because she is the only one in the household who allows him to be who he is. She listens to him. She comes to find him so that she can spend time with him. She doesn't ignore him. He gives her jobs to do for him and pays her in liquorice allsorts. They share the syrupy taste that oozes with heat and exotic aromas.
Outside of her father's study, all is noise and commotion. Inside, there is peace and a sense of accomplishment.
And Tessa believes that there is a special bond between them because he is the only one in the household who allows her to be who she is.
Until she grows up and the game they have been playing verges on reality. But in London, at the time of the First World War, the daughter of a catholic girl had to do as she was told.
But she loves her father. He loves her. Is it better not to feel love because if you don't, you are free to do what you want. If you love someone, doing what you want can cause pain and that is not something you want to inflict. On the other hand, if you love someone, do all your needs disappear?
Every member of the household explores this dilemma. Being part of a family thrusts this upon you. How to resolve - the needs of the one outweighing the needs of the many, or vice versa?

Writing through the senses

"Meeting Coty" is rich with the senses. It evokes the perfumes of flowers and bottled scents, of food, of the rain or sun, of London and Jerez de la Frontera through the language chosen. The young Tessa fills a basin of water with the flower heads she has snapped from her mother's floral displays. The bathroom is sunlit. The flowers tumble in the light and are submerged in the rippling liquid. The rest of the household are still in bed, the air is thick with sleep, the anticipation of the day hovering through the rooms.

And then the eldest daughter awakes and she greets her younger sister in spanish. And the cacophony of the house begins. After the silence, the floors and walls resound with voices and sounds and movement and noise. The day has begun.

This is the world of the Garcia family. Two adults and nine children and each one pulling and twisting against the other in their individual ways. But one of the girls dreams of escaping. For a spanish catholic girl being brought up in London before the first world war, this was impossible. But in Tessa's mind, she already knew the young boy who ran barefoot through the pine groves, brushed his hands through the rosemary bushes and stood on the beach looking away from the island to the mainland where he dreamed of conquering the world. Their ambitions seemed impossible, yet he became Francois Coty, the greatest perfume maker in the world and if he became this, what was Tessa capable of doing?

Writing from real life

I've written a novel, Meeting Coty, which is published by Kings Hart Books (an independent publisher which I'd like to discuss later) and is based on real people. Years ago, my father looked into the spanish side of our family tree and uncovered names, certain facts, events and even character traits for a couple of the characters. I based Meeting Coty on his findings.
What I am pleased about is that he didn't find out too much. If he had, I think it would have been difficult not to feel that I'd taken liberties and not been true to these ancestors who had gone through these events. I would feel as though I was robbing them of their lives and the importance of what they did if I had changed anything. And then it wouldn't have been fiction. And as we're frequently told, real life isn't always interesting.
So. I'm glad I only had the bare bones because then I could make up what I wanted within a true frame work that gave the story a strong base.
Of course, Francois Coty has been written about and researching him was fascinating. He doesn't appear in great detail in the book. This is something else to debate - research and how much to use. Meeting Coty is about the main character, Tessa and her desire to meet the great man of perfume! I have had comments from some people who have read the book that they would like to know more about Coty. So, the follow on book, Leaving Coty, explores his life in more detail while keeping the same characters from the first book.
I'd be interested to know how other people deal with the fact and fiction balance. If we know about a subject, it is annoying to see it changed. The damage that can be done to history. I'm thinking of the Enigma films, the American version and the British one and the bending of facts. I am against this. The Titanic film annoyingly had facts out of kilter, but by basing the story on two fictional characters in that real setting, gave them leeway. But Rose (Kate) spitting? And the middle finger thing? Grrrrr-aghhh!! You can lose an audience by one small discrepency. So, it's the balance. Any thoughts? And yes, I blur films and fiction when I talk because I love both. Now there's another debate...