'This book is a must' New York Times

This is Los Angeles in the 1930s, where the parties are fabulous, the cocktails flow, and ravishing movie stars and European royalty are on the guestlist.

Here, the last word in good taste is had by infamous interior decorator and socialite Elsie de Wolfe, Lady Mendl, known to her closest friends simply as 'Mother'. When Ludwig Bemelmans, recently arrived in Hollywood to work as a screenwriter, first meets her, she is ninety years old, devoted to her little dog Blue Blue - and an unstoppable force.

Bemelmans is rapidly established as a member of the family, given a suite in Elsie's dazzling home and access to the crème-de-la-crème of Hollywood society. Filled to the brim with wit and style, this is a luminous portrait of a fabulously eccentric woman, and a charming, whirlwind friendship.

Ludwig Bemelmans (1898-1962) was a writer and illustrator. He emigrated from Germany to America in 1914, at the age of sixteen, and initially worked in the New York hotel industry before becoming a full-time cartoonist and writer. As an illustrator, he made frequent contributions to the New Yorker and Town and Country and also worked as a screenwriter for MGM. He published many books for both children and adults, including the beloved Madeline children's books.