May We Feed the King : Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2026

A startlingly original, intricate adventure in history, imagination and the human psyche, May We Feed the King finds the curator of a royal medieval palace drawn deeper and deeper into the life of its one-time occupants – a reluctant ruler and his courtiers scheming to replace him.

Winner of the Waterstones Debut Fiction prize 2026, Find Out More

Shortlisted for The Booker Prize 2026

Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month for August 2026

She is a curator, who spends her time dressing the rooms of historic buildings to bring them to life. But in the lush private quarters of a medieval palace, she finds herself so transfixed by the reign of an almost-forgotten King that the edges of her life begin to blur.

He is a reluctant ruler with no hunger for power, rushed to the throne after the untimely deaths of his older brothers. But it isn't long before whispers begin to fly around the court. And with the growing belief that the King is not fit for the throne comes the idea that another might rule in his stead.

May We Feed the King dances between the lives of a historical subject who risks the future of his kingdom and a woman who turns to the past to hide from her present. Laced with desire and longing, it is a playful, stirring meditation on history and storytelling: on what makes a King 'Great', and a life meaningful.

MEDIA REVIEWS

Almost a fairytale... Perry's novel is a sly and suggestive commentary on the act of historical novel writing itself - Financial Times

A highly wrought puzzle-box of a book... It is as though we, not the long-dead courtiers, are the ghosts, as we creep around the palace peering into its rooms dressed in careful set-pieces, trying to interpret complex and momentous events from the few clues left behind - Guardian

The historical fiction I have always wanted to read. Surreal and dreamlike... With an eye on the tiny, overlooked details of worlds long gone, this book felt like something hidden come to life - what is real, and what is true, and in the middle of all that, what really matters? - Jessie Burton

May We Feed The King floored me with the precision of its emotional insights and eccentric view of history-as-narrative... A sort of perfect snow globe, presenting a decadent world in miniature that surprises us with the depth of its reflections on power, yearning and loneliness - A. K. Blakemore

Perry combines effortless exactitude with canny ambiguity to create a novel that is always as stimulating as it is enchanting. May We Feed the King is a rare achievement, I absolutely loved it - Claire-Louise Bennett

Meditative, compelling and intricate as a puzzle box - I found myself turning it over and over, admiring and wrong footed and dazzled - Kiran Millwood Hargrave

An artfully told, dizzyingly detailed descent into the murkiness of the past. Perry's prose is needle-sharp, lush as a feast. A book to devour - Lucy Steeds