Patrick Süskind, born in Ambach on Lake Starnberg in 1949, studied medieval and modern history in Munich and Aix-en-Provence, making a living writing screenplays. His one-man play The Double Bass was published in 1984, his novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer in 1985, the novella The Pigeon in 1987 and The Story of Mr Sommer with illustrations by Jean-Jacques Sempé in 1991.