Hotel Bemelmans

The adventures of the original bad boy of the New York restaurant/ hotel underbelly continue. Whether writing about the backstairs misadventures of cooks and waiters or travel to faraway lands, Bemelmans is always funny, insightful and dead on target. No one has ever surpassed the master. – Anthony Bourdain
A complete original * Saturday Review *
An artist in both line and words … with talents of gold * Observer *
Very entertaining … an excellent story-teller * Sunday Times *
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 *
A note of expensive cosmopolitan is brilliantly sustained. There are stories here that could hardly be done better * New Statesman *
The singularity of Bemelmans, whether he draws or writes, is his double capacity to see freshly like a child and comment shrewdly like a grown up. The product is an awry wisdom, the wisdom of a reflective innocent who is surprised at nothing and delighted with everything * Clifton Fadiman *
Mr Bemelmans is always pricking bubbles, discreetly, appreciatively, out of a sense of duty rather than a desire to shock, and the process is delightful * The Times *

Ludwig Bemelmans (1898-1962) wrote and illustrated over 40 books. Born in the Austrian Tyrol, he was sent to America at the age of 16 after he shot a head-waiter at his uncle’s hotel. He arrived in New York sporting pistols to fend off Indians. In addition to his books, he wrote for Hollywood, owned restaurants, designed sets for Broadway, and painted everything from magazine covers to hotel frescos. A legendary traveler and bon vivant, he asked to have “Tell Them It Was Wonderful” carved on his gravestone.

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