Which book characters would you invite to a dinner party, and why?

I’m not deliberately avoiding this question when I say I haven’t a clue. When I’m reading I immerse myself - worryingly - deeply in the book of the moment but once finished could be (should be?) alarmed at the speed with which the plot and the characters ebb away. It’s a cheat to resort to film versions but they remain more vivid in my mind’s eye, so, in no particular order:

Robert Donat as Richard Hannay in The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan.

Al Pacino in just about anything but probably as Michael Corleone in The Godfather by Mario Puzo.

Russell Crowe as Thomas Cromwell when they get round to filming Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall

Robert Redford as Dortmunder in The Hot Rock by Donald E Westlake

but of course this is turning into a list of my favourite actors, not books. It’s also a startlingly male list, too. So I’ll make amends by adding Emma Thompson who not only starred in Sense and Sensibility but scripted as well (albeit with a little help from one Ms Austen) and this - less than subtly - segues into the delightful Ms Knightley in Pride and Prejudice or Atonement.