Ludwig Bemelmans came to the California home of famed interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe, Lady Mendl, for cocktails. 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'. With hilarity and mischief, Bemelmans lifts the curtain on a bygone world of extravagance and eccentricity, where the parties are held in circus tents and populated by ravishing movie stars. To the One I Love the Best is a luminous painting of life's oddities and a touching tribute to a fabulously funny woman.

"About a third of the way through the book I decided that Lady Mendl, was one of the great comic creations in the history of literature... as airy as a soufflé, full of the sun and smells of California... Madeline for grown ups" - Spectator

"The charm of To the One I Love the Best lies in the peerless combination of author and subject" - Paris Review

"One reads Bemelmans not as one reads a serious novelist but for the sheer momentary pleasure given by his evocation of atmosphere and mood" - Punch

"An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein" - Kirkus Reviews (1953)