In her debut book, party-planning expert, Polly Betton, shares her experience on just how to make any occasion really special and one that friends and family will never forget. She founded London based events company Teatime Productions and has been responsible for bringing us many an unforgettable shindig, including the likes of The White Blackbird parties.Here she tells us about her new book-Party! How to Organise a Brilliant Bash: The Essential Guide by Polly Betton, published by Kyle Books, priced £19.99. Photography by Romas Foord.Details on how to win a copy are below.

KA: What's the best party you've ever been to?Why was it so special?

PB:I'm going to immediately discount anything I've worked on, because it can't possibly be the best party if you've got to make sure it's tidied up afterwards. I used to really enjoy David Piper's Rakehell's Revels parties at Cafe Royal, because they were the perfect confluence of a beautiful setting, great music and a really interesting crowd of people. It was also a moment in time where I was entirely happy to stay up until 3am on a Tuesday (and most other week nights, in fact), fitted into all my ritzy party frocks and could still go to work the next day looking like I'd had a full 8 hours. I'm very glad I did it then but there isn't a snowball in hell's chance of it getting repeated any time soon.

KA:And your worst experience at a party?

PB: It's really not a good plan to ask a party organiser about her worst experience at a party, the list is endless! People don't realise that being at someone else's rubbish party is nothing on trying to make one of your own run properly. I'd consider attending a party with any of the classic problems (room too cold, lights too bright, food too slow, not enough alcohol, a horrible guest, not enough people etc) to be a cakewalk, because you can just leave, or if you're feeling benevolent, fix it. The absolute pits is when you have to spend all night dodging bullets to keep a particularly troublesome party on the rails. Because you can't leave, or hide, you have to stand in the middle of it looking calm and smiling while quietly wanting to sit in a cupboard with a bag on your head until it's all over. Fortunately that doesn't happen very often, and I work with a brilliant team who can spot and diffuse potential problems without batting an eyelid.

KA:Have you ever behaved shamefully at an office Christmas party?

PB:Sadly not - I've only been to a couple of office parties, and they were very low key. I suspect that's quite a good thing, since I'm the sort of person who does something really embarrassing and then gets haunted by it at 3am for months, if not years. I can still remember a particular incident from 1999, although I'm happy to report that the accompanying twinge has faded.

KA:Were you always keen on get- togethers?What did birthday parties involve when you were a child?

PB:I always had epic plans for celebrations when I was younger. Fortunately for everyone around me, they very rarely made it into reality. I remember making my own birthday cake one year using a Mrs Beeton recipe that required no less than 13 eggs. I built this seven tier monstrosity and decorated it with a huge amount mint green and light pink rococo icing. Since I had no idea how to actually make a sponge cake, it had the texture of a house brick. Which was actually rather lucky, because I also had no idea how to make a properly supported tiered cake, and had it not been dense enough to use for sound insulation it would have collapsed all over the place.

KA:What song will always get you on the dancefloor?

PB:It doesn't take much, I'm always happy to join in on the dancefloor. However, I'm stuck in a bit of a timewarp, so won't really dance to any musical genre that turned up after the 80s. At the risk of sounding like my dad (although he actually has much more progressive musical taste than me) it helps if it's got lyrics, doesn't repeat itself every 5 seconds and makes a noise other than bang bang bang bang.

KA:If you could party with any historical figure,who would it be and why?

PB:I always think about this sort of question in far too much detail. For example: would that mean that they came to your time for the party, or would you go back to theirs? I don't think I'd fancy most of history on the basis that it would be a lot darker and smellier with a distinct absence of Addison Lee. Not to mention the cultural differences and the fact that these days we've all got attention spans like gnats and go bananas when we're not entertained for five minutes. Something written up as a great party a hundred years ago could turn out to be like watching an Emmerdale marathon. Even an event like George A. Kessler's Gondola Dinner at the Savoy in 1905 is something I'd rather re-create than attend the original, since all the fish and swans in the flooded courtyard were killed by the blue dye in it. However, in the spirit of the thing, I'd have to say Lord Berners. I've been doing some research on him for an upcoming event and I think he sounds like great fun - anyone who dyes his fantail doves so that they look like flying confetti gets my vote.

COMPETITION: Win a copy of 'Party! How to Organise a Brilliant Bash: The Essential Guide by Polly Betton' ,published by Kyle Books, priced £19.99. Send your answer to katie@run-riot.com. Winners will be picked at random.

Q: How many eggs were in the cake recipe by Mrs Beeton that Polly once followed?

A:1)6 2)12 3)13 4)20