To make your dinner party stand out from the crowd, try having a theme for the evening. For stately home elegance, bring out the silver cutlery, crisp white linen tablecloths, crystal glasses and wine from a decanter. Just be careful: there's a fine line between elegant and Hyacinth Bucket. For a curry, transform your dining room into a Maharajah's palace with sumptuous, Indian fabric drapes.

Or for a traditional British eating experience, host a "school dinner" with fish and chips followed by sponge pudding or spotted dick (the name of which alone will keep your guests entertained for most of the evening). Just prepare for the inevitable food fight.

It is good manners to make an effort with how you dress for a dinner party. After all, the host or hostess has slaved over a hot stove for hours, the least you can do is put a bit of slap on and polish your shoes.

If you are having a themed dinner party, it might be fun to suggest that your guests dress according to that theme. Certainly it is wise to warn your guests if, for example, you intend to seat them on the floor (mini skirts and sitting cross-legged are never a happy combination), or if you are planning to serve particularly messy food that is likely to drip and ruin their best silk tie or cream frock forever.

Although you have a captive audience, unless you want to ensure that your guests have a truly tedious evening, a dinner party is not the occasion to take them through a lengthy slideshow of your recent trip to the Isle of Mull, or worse still, your wedding video.

Encourage your guests to get to know one another by playing guessing games — each person has to think of a little known fact about themselves and the other guests have to guess what that fact is by asking questions that only have a yes or no answer.

Or encourage socializing by way of a wine tasting. Ask each guest to bring a bottle of their favourite wine then organise a blind tasting in which you all give marks out of 10 for each one. The guest who brought the best bottle can then choose the person or people who must polish off the worst one.

The first absolutely vital step in planning your menu is to speak to your guests and find out their likes and dislikes. There is nothing worse than finding out on the day of your do that someone has recently become a vegan / has a wheat intolerance / doesn't like tomatoes.

Shop around for good quality, fresh ingredients. The more seasonal and local the better. Your guests will notice the difference.

And never, ever cook a complicated recipe for the first time for a dinner party. It's bound to go wrong, or take twice as long to prepare as you thought, leaving your guests absolutely famished when their dinner still hasn't appeared at 9.45pm. Pick something you know you can do well, and you’ll knock them out every time.

Most people will want to bring a bottle to a dinner party, so it’s worth letting them know in advance whether white or red wine would go better with the meal.

Make sure you have plenty of interesting soft drinks for those who are driving, and splash out on a really special aperitif to welcome your guests — a champagne cocktail, or proper martinis.

1.	China in Your Hand / T'pau
2.	The Sweetest Taboo / Sade
3.	Red, Red Wine / UB40
4.	Coffee & TV / Blur
5.	Roll With It / Oasis
6.	Peaches / Presidents of the United States of America
7.	Every 1's a Winner / Hot Chocolate
8.	Push It / Salt 'n' Pepa
9.	La Vie en Rose / Edith Piaf
10.	Roast Fish, Collie Weed and Cornbread / Lee Perry

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