Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Moore Rosebud.

It's an episode with a literary twist, even a historical twist,

because our special guest in just a moment is going to be one of my favorite novelists,

Sebastian Folks.

British novelist, journalist, memoirist now, best known, I suppose, for his historical novels that are set in France,

The Girl of the Léondor, Birdsong, Charlotte Grey, made into movies. So Sebastian Fokes is coming up, but first I'm here with my friend and producer Harriet Jane.

And the other day, we began talking about history. And you said to me, I think you came up with

the idea, Giles, who would you like to be married to if it was an historical figure? Which figure

from history do you think would be your ideal partner?

Yes, and I said you can't have Joan of Arc, didn't I?

Oh, yes.

Well, I didn't say that. I just said, oh, is it going to be Joan of Arc again?

And you laughed and said you were going to come up with someone.

And I have come up with someone.

I can't wait to hear who it is.

I've really come up with somebody and it's not Joan of Arc. Though I thought a lot of lovely thoughts about Joan of Arc. Good. But she's not going to be my wife. Is she marriage material? That's the question. My, the one is, was Joan of Art managed material? Yes. Now, I think too much was going on. I agree. And also she was married to the almighty, she was married to God. And you know, you can, you can compete with some people. You can't necessarily. You're going to laugh when you hear mine. Okay. If you've got one, is this for you? I've got two. You've got two potential husbands. I mean, they're hopeless. Give me, as it were, the more straight one, the more normal one, the more the one that people might think is a possibility. Sir Francis Drake. That's so close to it, the one I've chosen. Really? It's a bit alarming. Is it? Oh, anyway, I'm not going to guess. You've chosen Sir Francis Drake as a husband. I mean, I think he'd be hopeless as as a husband because he's always at sea. But that might be good in some ways. It's always quite good when your husband comes back from being away or when he's away. Both is good. Both is. He's away. You're free. And he's back. It's exciting. Exactly. Now, remind me who was Francis Drake? Well, one of the things that drew me to him is he's from Devon. He's from Plymouth and I'm from Devon. So that's good. We'd have that in common. We could talk about Devon. We'd probably like wherever we lived, it would be in South Devon and we'd enjoy that. Or that could be a holiday place maybe. And then he's got a goat, a beard. A goatee beard. I've always quite like that. I think it's quite natty. I think I've seen a few paintings of Sir Francis Draykin kind of doublet and hose and good legs. Fabulous. Really good legs. Good legs. And obviously the main thing he did was fight off the Spanish Armada.

That's who he's famous for.

He's really quite a virile.

He's 1605 or something.

When is the Spanish Armada? I was going to say 1598. I think you're, I think you're more likely. I think, no, I think it's the gunpowder plot. It's 605. No, I think I'm wrong.

No, I think you're right.

So you've chosen somebody who was perhaps the greatest national hero of the Elizabethan age.

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