Floating Gold
A Natural (and Unnatural) History of Ambergris
232 pages
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12 color plates, 21 halftones
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6 x 9
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© 2012
- Contents
- Review Quotes
Table of Contents

Contents
Prologue: Wellington, 2008
Introduction: Marginalia
1 On Long Beach
2 There Is a Piece at Rome as Big as a Man’s Head
3 The Beach Mafia
4 It Looked like Roquefort and It Smelled like Limburger
5 A Molecule Here and a Molecule There
6 Close Encounters of the Ambergris Kind
7 The Hopefuls
8 On the Road
9 Gone A-Whaling
10 A Meeting
Epilogue
Review Quotes
Booklist
"In this entertaining natural history, molecular biologist and columnist Christopher Kemp recounts two years of obsessively combing beaches and visiting tight-lipped experts to discover the secrets of the international ambergris trade."
Richard Ellis | Times (UK)
“Christopher Kemp holds no world records (well, except hands-down for the best book ever written about ambergris), but after a childhood in Birmingham he found himself at the University of Otago, on the South Island of New Zealand, where he began his obsessive quest for ambergris. . . .You probably haven’t spent many sleepless nights wondering where ambergris comes from or what it smells like, but I know that Floating Gold will enchant and surprise you with its answers to these and countless other questions, and you will now be able to dazzle your uninformed friends who otherwise would know nothing about how faecal impactions and French perfume go together.”
BaseNotes
“Floating Gold will appeal to those who have a keen interest in the ingredients that go into the perfumes that they love and wear. It will also make essential reading for any would-be perfumer or anyone with a keen interest in the natural (and unnatural) materials that make up the perfumers palette.”
Nature
“Christpher Kemp’s engrossing study takes us through history, tales of present-day hunters and cetacean science, poking its nose into the perfume industry on the way.”
Macleans
"Ambergris is the kind of singularity—in nature and in human affairs—that cries out for investigation by an obsessed scientist who can write well. In Christopher Kemp, the world’s most lusted-after poop has found its man."
The Millions
“It’s hard not to fall in love with ambergris, or the concept of ambergris as the unknowable embodiment of the sea, along with Christopher Kemp.”
Weekly Standard
“Kemp manages to infuse each windy walk on the shore with an air of true mystery. Each foray seems as if it could be the right one, and I found myself peeking at the end to find out whether or not he succeeds.”
Science
“Carefully and thoughtfully written, Christopher Kemp’s Floating Gold can take a place on the bookshelf among my favorite natural histories. Those peer at their subject from many angles, combining facts with observations of the places and people that have become part of its history. Kemp (a molecular biologist) tells stories about ambergris: fragrant stuff, produced in the gut of the sperm whale, that for centuries has been both a prized commodity and a compellingly mysterious substance. . . . Floating Gold offers an enticing initiation into the shadowy and intriguing history of ambergris.”
Choice
“The history that Kemp, a molecular biologist and journalist, presents here illustrates the process of how an understanding of natural history on any topic typically matures from its nascent, speculative beginnings. The relaxed writing style is characterized by a justly parsimonious ability to describe locations, objects, and people. Clearly, the author’s observational skills are well honed."
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