Hosting a dinner party is sometimes more of a duty than a pleasure: feeling obliged to return an invitation that you perhaps could have lived without in the first place.

Why not invite a guest or couple who specifically want your party to go well? A guest who is first to arrive and last to go, who will sense when to listen to or encourage conversation, be humorous or serious, dissolve potential conflict and gently deal with the guest who just knows that his (it's usually his) hobby is a scintillating, one way conversation from canapés to coffee.