Brambles

He handed me a jasmine flower. “What does this smell of?”

“Er… jasmine?”… “Yes… and also death”. I was hooked.

It turns out that jasmine flowers contain scatol, which is also present in much higher concentrations in rotting flesh, and hence Dr Mark Spencer’s party trick at the start of his lecture on forensic botany. I immediately starting taking notes, and when Mark said “the thing about brambles… they tend to grow where bad people go… to do unspeakable things”. I really, really wanted to write this song, and met up with Mark and his partner Edward afterwards for a dinner and the first of a number of fascinating conversations. Mark was botany curator at the Natural History Museum, before becoming a forensic botanist, and is one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met.

Writing the song was harder than I thought, and when I had the lyrics, I thought that it was too dark to be useful. But then I took it into the studio, with a simple beat, melody and suggested chords, and Boo and Chris loved it. We worked up the song in an afternoon, and sent it to Mark, who was gobsmacked. “I’m releasing this book, Murder Most Florid, based on the lectures. Would you allow me to use your music as part of the publicity?” “Wow, of course!”

And then came along John Parker, the double bass player, who as it turned out could also beatbox. And then Gustaf Ljunggren decided that it needed a little bit of clarinet, and we had something special. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to write something on a topic so interesting agaon.

To finish, in November 2019, I found myself at the Linnaen Society in London, part of the Royal Academy, surrounded by botanists, and playing my music. I love where these things take you. And yes, you should read the book.