For the Telegraph’s new history page, I was invited to consider who would be my six dream dinner party guests from history.

I spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about this! I tried to choose people from different historical periods, who’d have fascinating stories to tell from the past, but who’d also make good dinner companions. I wonder what you think of my final choices!

Incidentally, I love the fact that the feature is called ‘Table Talk’, after the famous collection of Luther’s candid conversations over his dinner table. And I should add: I was told that I couldn’t make the obvious choices – Jesus, Shakespeare, Nelson, Churchill,  etc. My guests had to be a bit more obscure (which was actually a wonderful challenge), but as this isn’t mentioned in an introduction, my choices probably look peculiarly arcane…

Here’s the article online:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9134363/Dr-Suzannah-Lipscomb-My-dream-dinner-party-guests-from-history.html