A straight forward question, which, if any, historical characters would you like to speak to or meet ? Who would you invite round to dinner?

Mmm, well I'd quite like to have Julius Ceasar around for a meal just to warn him to wear armour under the toga on the Ides of March. Oh and possibly to tell him to sit up straight when eating, terribly bad manners to be slouching around at the dinner table.

Richard the Third, I have lots of questions for him!!

I'd invite Jesus, Hannibal and Mohammed to join me for dinner but I wouldn't necessarily lay places for four.

I would like to hear St Paul and Protagoras have a chat. I would keep dormouse quiet ... any way I'd be busy with the tape recording.

Will Shakespeare, just to see who (or how many) comes. Cleopatra, by all accounts she would be an entertaining guest but I'd have to hide the pearls. Suetonius, for the salacious gossip. Marco Polo, to ask if he ever went to China. Any old Neanderthal, to check out his/her verbal facilities and table manners.

In fact, just about anyone.

It just occured to me that we're not going to understand a thing any of these fascinating people have to say......not unless we speak the appropriate ancient language but even then I reckon it would be a struggle.

If that wasn't enough, they'll probably have bad breath, body odour, slop their food, eat with their mouths open, eat with their fingers, pick their noses, burp, fart, scratch their backsides, stick their fingers in their ears, not pass the salt or any number of things we'd think uncouth today and we'll be put off them for ever.

Just imagine the smell of that fart from ancient days!!!!

Incomprehensible mumblings and unpleasant personal habits - those of us who have had dealings with teenage boys should find all that perfectly familiar.

I'd invite round for dinner, Mrs Beeton, Auguste Escoffier and King Richard II. Each guest would have to bring one course for the meal.

I would also like to talk to some of those people with mysteries surrounding them - the people on the Mary Celeste (after they got off), some of those classic undetermined killers in British history, the person who wrote the Jack the Ripper letters, the three Australian children who went missing on a beach in 1966, the person who killed Julia Wallace.

Historical characters probably mean named ones but I would quite like to visit an English village of the 14th century and perhaps an 11th century one too.

For a NZ focus a meeting between suffragist and lady Kate Sheppard and publican and uncouth Henry Fish would be interesting. The people who first decided to leave Taiwan to sail across to the Pacific Islands.

I'd be interested to see what DaVinci would be able to 'bring to the table'?

Johnny, if its a sepia crayon, please may have the table cloth afterwards?

Priscilla wrote:

Johnny, if its a sepia crayon, please may have the table cloth afterwards?

Lol. Unless i also invite Mohammad Ali, the beauty would be mine... all mine! Wuhah!