Hello and welcome to the History Extra podcast from BBC History Magazine, Britain's best-selling history magazine.

I'm Ellie Gawthorne. If you could ask a historian any question about the past,

what would you want to know? That's the premise of the public historian Greg Jenner's new book,

Ask a Historian, which tackles 50 questions covering all kinds

of eras and topics that people most want to know about. Greg joined us recently to talk about

some of the questions he tackles, from whether people really ate powdered mummies to the historical

figures he'd choose for an Ocean's 11 style heist, plus a few

of those that he simply just couldn't answer. Putting the questions to Greg was our digital editor

Eleanor Evans, and she started off by asking him about the idea behind the book. I think,

I don't know how other historians feel,

but sometimes I feel like I am writing a book

in the hope that people will be interested in what I have to say.

Or if you're doing a podcast or you're giving a talk,

you hope people are showing up going,

that sounds interesting.

But the nice thing about writing a book

where you're answering questions from the public is at least you've got 50 guaranteed sales.

At least the 50 people who've asked me the question.

Well, at least buy it.

But there is something nice.

Certainly in my line of work, I'm a public historian.

That's the job title I like to use.

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