I have been obsessed with dinner parties since I was eight or nine. At this age my greatest desire was to get my mum to let me stay up for the ones she threw for her friends. Once I even succeeded. It was amazing. and yes; it involved a hostess trolley. As an adult I have therefore made it a priority in my life to throw a lot of dinner parties.Article continues after advertisement
The problem with dinner parties, from the point of view of a hostess, is that so much is always going on and once and you can only be in one place at a time. The starter needs plating, you have to check on the main in the oven, one of the guests is being left out of the conversation, another is getting a little too het-up about politics, another still needs a top-up of wine, and you really want to hear what those two over there are saying about your other friend who’s not here, and also where did you leave *your” glass of wine… It’s a problem.
I have also now written a book called The Dinner Party: A Book About Love. It contains a longish poem about a dinner party, also called “The Dinner Party.” As might be expected, this poem describes the sort of dinner party I also throw a lot of.
The problem with dinner parties, from the point of view of a writer, is also that so much is always going on. So many characters, so many dynamics, so many conversations and actions, and they after all going on at the same time. How to catch that spirit, and still keep it comprehensible? And what is it, exactly, that you are trying to catch?
