A state dinner at the White House, the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala, once-in-a-lifetime birthday celebrations every lucky guest knows that there is no party like a David Monn party.

Using scent, sound, sight, touch and taste, Monn designs events to be 'shared, lived and felt' by everyone there. Monn's three favourite words authenticity, scale and detail inform every chapter of his book, following him from classic New York nights to events around the world and back again to the most private rites of passage, including entertaining at home.

How to do this yourself? It means considering your home as not just rooms, but instead as 'a living environment', and not thinking of a birthday as a party, but rather 'a milestone of accomplishment and growth.'

With a rare foreword by venerable fashion photographer Bill Cunningham, in this volume Monn draws from his personal archive of 20,000 event photographs to reveal the unique beauty of each event.