To the One I Love the Best

I loved Madeline as a child and I love anything to do with Old Hollywood so I knew acquiring this book would be the Percy combination. I am beyond excited to share a full review and thoughts her. I know many people will love this one as much as I do!


A witty and charming account of the wildly entertaining Elsie de Wolfe in 1950s Hollywood, recounted by her dear friend, the beloved creator of Madeline

Ludwig Bemelmans’ charming intergenerational friendship with the late-in-life “First Lady of Interior Decoration” provides an enormously enjoyable nostalgia trip to the sun-soaked glamour of Los Angeles, where de Wolfe surrounded herself with classic movie stars and a luminous parade of life's oddities.

With hilarity and mischief that de Wolfe would no doubt approve, To the One I Love the Best lifts the curtain on 1950s Hollywood--a bygone world of extravagance and eccentricity, where the parties are held in circus tents and populated by ravishing movie stars.

Bemelmans, who was working at MGM, had originally come to the California home of de Wolfe just for cocktails but by the end of the night, he was firmly established as a member of the family: given a bedroom in their sumptuous house, invitations to the most outrageous parties in Hollywood, and the friendship of the larger-than-life woman known to her closest friends simply as 'Mother'.

To the One I Love the Best (which refers to de Wolfe’s dog) is a touching tribute to a fabulously funny woman and an American icon.

Be pretty if you can, be witty if you must, but be gracious if it kills you. - Elsie de Wolfe

I am a huge Bemelmans fan. I could recite Madeleine books to my daughters by heart and had to make a pilgrimage to Bemelman’s Bar at the Hotel Carlyle to see his murals.. This memoir about his friendship with Elsie de Wolfe is written in his typically charming manner. However, I found myself skimming the chapters. I longed for some concrete answers to my questions. Why does Elsie de Wolfe, AKA, Lady Mendl, initially invite Bemelmans, a Hollywood writer at the time, to her home? Why does she refer to herself as Mother? I have many other questions too, but the memoir consists of episodes in their friendship (always entertaining) and de Wolfe’s pronouncements, Still, lines such as “She weighed about ninety pounds without her jewels…” make this memoir worth reading.

This is an interesting, entertaining snapshot of a very specific place and time. What a character “Mother” is! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

To The One I Love The Best is a clever and endearing book about Elsie de Wolf, the First Lady decorator. The author, Ludwig Bemelmans, writes about his time spent with de Wolf in her later years. De Wolf, also known as mother to those close to her, was an eccentric queen bee who dominated a room but had the respect and admiration of all who crossed her path. From the wealthy socialites in New York, Hollywood and Paris and all places in between she knew and decorated for all the “who’s who” of that time. This was a delightful read I will be thinking about for some time.

This was fantastic. I enjoyed it so much.
I just reviewed To the One I Love the Best by Ludwig Bemelmans. #TotheOneILovetheBest #NetGalley
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I am delighted that this will be republished for a new audience. I have been a fan of Bemelmans since I read Hotel Splendide a good few years ago now. I enjoy his memoirs far more than his work for children. He is witty and has a great ear for dialogue and the eccentricities of people which I love. He moved in some rather exalted circles and I love his gentle lampooning of the upper classes, while all the time you can feel his affinity and love for the people he is ribbing. This is delightful. It tells in lightly fictionalised terms of the time he spent in Hollywood and Paris in the Fifties with acclaimed aristocratic interior designer, Elise Mendl. It's an absolute joy.

Another Joy.,
A charming and delightful piece exposing, often with much hilarity and good natured fun, a vanished world. A world of parties, of luxury and of extravagance and those that inhabited it. The imagery created is heightened greatly by the author’s magical imagination but is always done in a best meaning and wholly affectionate manner. Another joy.

A lovely edition for fans of Ludwig Bemelmans. I absolutely adored the cover and the design of the book is beautiful!

A hilarious and clever story! What a joy to read and immerse myself into the time period and characters.

I didn’t come to this novel with any expectations about the period or character, but I instantly fell in love. Yes, it’s cosy and charming, but there is real life in the pages too. I raced through it and felt my heart expand as I did.

I really enjoyed this book, such a fun story that had me loving the book. I didn't want to putbit down and would 100% recommend to everyone.

To the One I Love the Best by Ludwig Bemelmans
Publication date: 7 March 2023
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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Ludwig Bemelmans’ charming intergenerational friendship with Elsie de Wolfe, the late-in-life “First Lady of Interior Decoration,” provides an enjoyable nostalgia trip to the sun-soaked glamour of Los Angeles, where de Wolfe surrounded herself with classic movie stars and a luminous parade of life's oddities.
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I went into this book knowing nothing about nothing, but the description caught my eye. Originally published in 1955, this is a somewhat fictionalised account of Bemelmans' friendship with the doyenne of Interior Design, Elsie Lady Mendl de Wolfe.
It was charming, nostalgic and witty, a really loving snapshot of a time and a place and the people within it.
Elsie, despite being a 90 year old lady described as weighing "about ninety pounds without her jewels," is a force of nature, wants to be known as "Mother," larger than life and somewhat overbearing. She commands a room and she commands the page. She's quite the terror to her poor husband, Sir Charles, but theirs is still a loving relationship and they absolutely steal the show.
However, as I said, this was written in a time and a place and there are several instances of language and stereotypes used to describe black people and people of certain nationalities that are very much of their time, but nonetheless unpleasant to come across and I thought that needed to be mentioned.
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Bemelmans' writing is simple and elegant, with a touch of humor that makes the book all the more enjoyable to read.

I'm delighted to see Ludwig Bemelmans' memoirs and novels being re-issued recently, so that a whole new group of readers can discover what a gem he is. Hilarious and brutally honest, every page of this book crackles with wit and life.

I really enjoyed this book it was such an interesting and fun story that kept me intrigued til the end.