When one of the best-known decorators in America sets down his impressions of the famous and the infamous, and of the homes they will live in, watch out!  The results will tug at your emotions.

Home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan means one thing to Ethel Merman, another to Van Johnson, and still another to Joe Namath (and Joe’s apartment may surprise you!).  Home at the White House means state dinners and the First Lady’s luncheons – Varney was there to plan the affair when the Israeli Egyptian peace treaty was signed, and again at the welcome for Britain’s prime minister, Margaret Thatcher.

It’s heaven and hell for Carleton Varney as he takes you to some of the world’s great living spaces he has designed – from a castle in Ireland to a hotel in Hawaii to a pair of resorts in West Virginia and Michigan that rank as the country’s finest.  And then on to Iran, where Varney and his designs are caught up in a revolution!

Like his decorating style, Varney’s prose is always colorful, never drab.  You’ll find his candid recollections an amusing, intelligent story.