A witty and informative guide to literature's best parties by London's most brilliant party planner

'Need a bit of entertaining inspiration? Take a page from a new book on the greatest gatherings that never were' Wall Street Journal

A Curious Invitation offers you the chance to gatecrash forty of literature's most memorable social events, from the decadence of ancient Rome at Trimalchio's banquet in The Satyricon, via the jazz age elegance of Jay Gatsby's Saturday night parties in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, to the trashy 1980s glamour of the Beverly Hills bash in Jackie Collins' Hollywood Wives.

With full details of who was there, what they wore, what they ate and drank and what (and who) they talked about, A Curious Invitation provides you with inspiration from some of the world's greatest writers on how to host your own parties.

'It takes a book like Suzette Field's A Curious Invitation to remind us of the absolute centrality of social entertainment to the way in which a literary classic works its spell' D. J. Taylor, Daily Telegraph

'Suzette Field is a genuinely talented story teller. Her book possesses a playful lightness of touch, but is pregnant with fact and meaning. It is both amusing and informative' Dan Cruickshank, BBC television presenter and author

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