Related to: 'The Art of the Party'

François Allard is a specialist in Motown and American music and has run the website MJStrangersite.com since 2003. He has collaborated on various Michael Jackson magazines and is part of the team behind JAM.

Gail Rolfe is a freelance journalist and fashion editor with more than thirty-five years of experience. She joined the Daily Mail as Fashion Writer in 1981, and became their Fashion Editor in 1986. She left in 1995 to pursue a freelance career working for Tatler, The Sunday Times and The Times, alongside a fashion consultancy for the Arcadia Group. Over the years she has interviewed and styled many celebrities including Goldie Hawn, Elizabeth Hurley and Tamara Mellon. She is passionate about high heels and bought her first pair of Manolo Blahniks for her interview at the Daily Mail. She lives in London.

After 7 years as a professional body piercer in Camden, Gizzi Erskine decided to pursue her life-long dream of being a chef. In 2003 Gizzi started training at the prestigious Leith's School of Food and Wine. She graduated the top of her year and went on to win a placement at BBC Good Food magazine, where she started to establish herself as an award-winning food writer and stylist. A career in TV started with the popular C4 primetime show, Cook Yourself Thin, and she has since appeared on dozens of shows from Iron Chef to Sky 1's Ones to Watch and Jamie Oliver's Food Tube network.Always at the forefront of any trend, Gizzi was one of the first to back the pop-up restaurant scene, and her food events and festival appearances are legendary for those in the know. She has been designated one of the London Evening Standard's 1000 Most Influential People six times.Gizzi has been a columnist for The Sunday Times Magazine, Contributing Editor for InStyle and has written for a wide variety of other magazines and newspapers such as Marie Claire, Elle, Elle USA, Vogue USA, GQ, The Times and the Evening Standard. Her books include Cook Yourself Thin, Gizzi's Kitchen Magic, Skinny Weeks & Weekend Feasts and Gizzi's Season's Eatings.Find out more about Gizzi: Instagram @gizzierskine | Twitter @GizziErskine

Hattie Newman has earned an international reputation for her inimitable creations in the field of set design and papercraft. Found in advertisements, animations, physical spaces and books, her colourful work is loved by children, publishers and photographers alike. Hattie has directed a number of playful short films and animations, in which her wonderful paper sculptures magically come to life - most recently in a Christmas TV Commercial for the fashion brand, Lacoste. Although based at her London studio, projects regularly call Hattie away to work in New York, Paris, Valencia, Milan and other places far from her original home of Devon, England. Her clients include Lacoste, TFL, NSPCC, The Guardian, Honda, Canon and John Lewis. As well as practicing commercially, Hattie is also active in design education, giving frequent talks and workshops to adults, students and children. Recent guest lectures include Brief Design Festival in Madrid, Papier Hier in Amsterdam and Beyonderground Festival in Belgium. In the UK, Hattie is a guest lecturer at the University of the West of England, where she gained her first class degree in Illustration in 2008.Exhibitions showcasing Hattie's work include Pick Me Up in Somerset House, London, The Paper Convention in Sydney and The Paper Cut Festival in Amsterdam.hattienewman.co.uk @hattienewman

James Hoffmann is the managing director of Square Mile Coffee Roasters, a multi-award-winning coffee roasting company based in East London. He is also the World Barista Champion 2007, having won the UK Barista competition in both 2006 and 2007. He writes a popular blog, www.jimseven.com, about coffee and the coffee business. The World Atlas of Coffee is his first book.

James Wong is a Kew-trained botanist, science writer and broadcaster based in London. Graduating with a Master of Science degree in Ethnobotany in 2006, he pursued his key research interests of under-utilized crop species and traditional food systems through field work in rural Ecuador, Java and southern China.He is the author of the best-selling books Grow Your Own Drugs, Homegrown Revolution and, for Mitchell Beazley, RHS Grow for Flavour (more than 64,000 copies sold) and How to Eat Better (more than 85,000 copies sold). He has presented BBC2's award-winning series Grow Your Own Drugs and co-presented, with Dr Michael Mosley, The Secrets of Your Food - a major BBC series on the science of food. He has a column in the Observer magazine.With his obsession for food almost eclipsing his love of plants, James's small London garden serves as a testing station for all manner of crops from around the world.

Having joined Farrow & Ball more than 20 years ago, Joa Studholme has amassed a vast wealth of experience. From developing new colours to consulting on design projects, Joa works with the paints and papers every day on both residential and commercial projects and chooses colours for more than 4,500 rooms a year. A self-confessed "colour geek", her passion for interior design and colour means her own home is under constant renovation and she claims to redecorate it at least once a month.

John is co-founder of LEON, which now has more than 55 restaurants (including in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Oslo and Washington, DC). He wrote LEON Naturally Fast Food with Henry Dimbleby, LEON Family & Friends with Kay Plunkett-Hogge, LEON Happy Salads and LEON Fast & Free with Jane Baxter and LEON Happy Soups, LEON Happy One-pot Cooking and LEON Fast Vegan with Rebecca Seal. He thinks that our relationship with food should be positive and joyous and that we need to listen more carefully to our gut, eat more good fats and less sugar.

Judith Miller began collecting in the 1960s while a student at Edinburgh University in Scotland. She has since extended and reinforced her knowledge of antiques through international research, becoming one of the world's leading experts in the field. In 1979 she co-founded the international best-seller Miller's Antiques Price Guide and has since written more than 100 books which are held in high regard by collectors and dealers.Judith Miller appears regularly on TV and radio. She is an expert on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow and has co-hosted the popular BBC series The House Detectives, ITV's Antiques Trail, and Discovery's It's Your Bid. She has appeared on The Martha Stewart Show and CNN. She is a regular lecturer and contributor to numerous newspapers and magazines, including the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph, BBC Homes & Antiques and House & Garden. She has lectured extensively, including at the V&A in London and the Smithsonian in Washington.