Two successful synthetic routes to trichostatin A ( 1) are described; one (Scheme 2) uses the γ-alkylation of a silyl dienol ether, the other (Scheme 4) uses a silyl-protected cyanohydrin anion. The two routes bear an upolung relation to each other. The Lewis acid-catalysed acylation of silyl enol ethers is a simple and effective way to prepare β-diketones and β-keto esters (Scheme 1); this reaction however gave only ⇌-acylation of the silyl trienol ether ( 11) (Scheme 3), and the silyl trienol ether ( 11) had to be prepared by a round-about route (Scheme 3).