Edith/Maddie here, with our fourth Wicked Wednesday celebrating the ladies who went before.
Wickeds, who are the badass babes – real or fictional, related or not – from the before times you would most like to have dinner with? What would you serve, and why? Tell us about your dinner party!
Sherry: I’d love to have dinner with Jane Austen. She might not be someone who would kick someone’s butt, but she did write about her times in a way that most authors didn’t. I’d love to find out what gave her the courage to do that. I’d take Jane out to dinner probably at a nice Italian restaurant. We’d have a nice glass or two of wine, some great pasta.
Julie: I have so many answers to this! I love the idea of taking Jane Austen out for Italian. I could go a few ways with this. A dinner party with Ida B. Wells, Eleanor Roosevelt and Gloria Steinhem could be great for the conversation. A dinner party with Amelia Edwards (real), Amelia Peabody (fiction), Barbara Mertz (creator of Amelia Peabody and Egyptologist) and a current day Egyptologist would be fun to the knowledge, and the updates. A dinner with Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and the Wickeds would be a blast. As for the food? Does it matter?
Edith/Maddie: Those all sound like great combos, Julie. And Jane Austen for an intimate dinner out does, too. Author Leslie Karst actually cooked dinner for Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her husband (and wrote a memoir about it, which might be coming out soon)! I’d love to assemble the Notorious RBG, Amelia Earhart, Alice Paul, and Gloria Steinem (after she’s done with dinner at Julie’s) and let them talk about women’s rights. I’d keep the menu simple: a big pot of beef bourguignon, crusty bread, a big green salad, and apple pie.
Barb: I think I’d have the late PD James and Ruth Rendell (who were friends despite a political divide), and living authors Anne Cleeves, Louise Penny and Tana French to talk mysteries and writing.
Readers: Who do you want to dine with, and what would you eat?