May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry – Summary, Characters, Themes and Literary Analysis
May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry – Summary, Characters, Themes and Literary Analysis
Introduction
May We Feed the King is the debut novel of British writer and poet Rebecca Perry. Published in 2026, the novel combines historical fiction, contemporary fiction, fantasy-like elements and literary experimentation.
The story moves between two worlds. One is the present-day world of an unnamed museum curator who works with historical displays. The other is an unnamed medieval court centred on a reluctant king who unexpectedly inherits the throne after the deaths of his two older brothers. (The Booker Prizes)
The novel explores history, memory, power, identity, desire, storytelling, imagination, responsibility and the relationship between the past and the present.
One of its most interesting ideas is that history may not be a fixed collection of facts. Instead, our understanding of history can be shaped by memory, imagination, storytelling and the people who choose what should be remembered.
May We Feed the King was shortlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize and won the 2026 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize. (The Booker Prizes)
About the Author
Rebecca Perry is a British author and poet from London.
Before writing May We Feed the King, she published poetry collections including Beauty/Beauty and Stone Fruit, as well as other poetry pamphlets. Her poetry has received major recognition, including a shortlist position for the TS Eliot Prize. She also published the creative nonfiction work On Trampolining in 2023. (The Booker Prizes)
May We Feed the King is her first novel.
Perry wanted to write historical fiction in an unusual form rather than simply recreating a particular historical period. She became interested in questions of memory, agency and imagination while developing the novel. (The Booker Prizes)
Background of the Novel
The novel developed from two separate ideas.
One concerned a woman who creates scenes using replica food.
The other concerned a young attendant serving a dying king.
Perry eventually realised that these two characters belonged to connected worlds and developed them into one novel. (The Booker Prizes)
This origin is important because the final novel itself is divided between two seemingly separate worlds:
A modern museum curator reconstructing the past
A medieval king struggling with power
The two narratives gradually begin to speak to each other.
Story and Narrative
The novel does not provide a conventional historical setting with a clearly named country, king or year.
Instead, Perry deliberately leaves many details unnamed.
The medieval kingdom is unnamed.
The king is unnamed.
The modern curator is unnamed.
Dates and specific locations are also largely absent.
This makes the story feel almost like a fairy tale or dream rather than conventional historical fiction.
The Booker Prize notes that Perry deliberately omits names, dates and locations, making the reader question how historical truth is constructed. (The Booker Prizes)
The Modern Curator
One half of the novel follows an unnamed museum curator.
Her job is to prepare historical rooms and displays.
She recreates the appearance of the past so that visitors can imagine how people once lived.
This means that her professional life is based on reconstruction.
She arranges furniture.
She creates historical scenes.
She uses replica objects.
She pays particular attention to food.
She works to make the past appear real.
But the objects are not actually from the past.
They are reconstructions.
This creates one of the novel's central questions:
If we recreate the past, are we discovering history or creating our own version of it?
The Curator's Personal Life
The curator is reserved and increasingly dissatisfied with her present life.
As she becomes more involved with the historical palace and the story of the forgotten king, the boundary between her professional work and her personal imagination begins to weaken.
She becomes fascinated by the king.
The past begins to provide an escape from the present.
Instead of facing the difficulties of her own life directly, she becomes increasingly absorbed in reconstructing another world.
The Booker Prize describes her as a woman who turns to the past to hide from her present. (The Booker Prizes)
The Medieval King
The second central figure is a reluctant medieval monarch.
He does not strongly desire power.
He becomes king unexpectedly after the deaths of his two older brothers.
He therefore inherits the throne because of circumstances rather than ambition.
His position is complicated.
He possesses enormous authority, but he does not necessarily want it.
As his reign continues, rumours begin spreading that he is not fit to rule.
This creates a political crisis.
People around him begin thinking about whether another person should take power.
The king's personal weakness therefore becomes a threat to the stability of the kingdom.
The King's Problem
The king occupies an unusual position.
He has enormous power, but he is not necessarily free.
A king can command others.
Yet his entire life is controlled by the expectations of the crown.
His servants anticipate his desires.
His court watches him.
His actions are interpreted politically.
His body and behaviour become public matters.
The novel therefore presents a paradox:
The person with the greatest political power may also have the least personal freedom.
This is one of the central ideas of the novel.
The Rumours About the King
As the story progresses, people at court begin questioning the king's ability to rule.
Rumours spread that he is not suitable for the throne.
This demonstrates the importance of reputation in political life.
The king's actual personality matters less than what others believe about him.
His image becomes a political weapon.
People begin imagining alternative rulers.
The question therefore becomes:
Who decides whether a ruler is fit to rule?
The answer is not necessarily the ruler himself.
It may be the court, political allies, enemies, subjects or historians.
Food and the King
Food is one of the most important recurring motifs in the novel.
The title itself asks:
May we feed the king?
Food appears in both the modern and medieval sections.
The curator works with replica food to recreate historical scenes.
The king has a complicated relationship with eating.
Feasting, feeding and fasting therefore become connected with power.
Food can represent:
Wealth
Status
Control
Desire
Hospitality
Political authority
Physical vulnerability
The Booker Prize reading guide specifically identifies food as a major theme, asking how feeding, feasting and fasting explore power and control. (The Booker Prizes)
Major Characters
The Curator
The unnamed curator is the central modern character.
She is quiet, observant and fascinated by the past.
Her work involves reconstructing historical environments.
She gradually becomes emotionally absorbed in the medieval king's story.
Her character represents the human desire to escape the present by entering an imagined past.
The King
The unnamed king is the central historical character.
He becomes ruler after the deaths of his older brothers.
Unlike a traditional ambitious monarch, he does not appear to desire power.
His reluctance becomes a source of political instability.
He is surrounded by rumours and uncertainty.
His character allows Perry to explore the burden of authority.
The Court
The medieval court functions almost like a collective character.
The people surrounding the king observe him, gossip about him and interpret his actions.
They influence the way his reign is understood.
The court demonstrates that political power depends not only on authority but also on perception.
Major Themes
1. History and Memory
History is perhaps the central theme of the novel.
The curator's job is to recreate the past.
But a reconstruction is never exactly the past itself.
A museum display is an interpretation.
A historian chooses what to include.
An artist chooses what to show.
A writer chooses what to narrate.
The novel therefore asks whether we can ever completely recover the past.
Perry has said that questions of memory, agency and imagination became increasingly important as she developed the novel. (The Booker Prizes)
2. Historical Fact versus Historical Fiction
The novel deliberately blurs the boundary between fact and fiction.
The medieval story feels historical, but the lack of names and dates makes it impossible to identify it as one particular historical period.
The modern curator reconstructs the past, but her reconstructions are artificial.
The novel therefore asks:
What is the difference between historical fact and historical fiction?
This is one of the major intellectual questions of the book.
The Booker Prize judges specifically praised the novel for unsettling the idea that there is one universal historical truth. (The Booker Prizes)
3. Power
Power is central to the king's story.
He has political authority but does not necessarily desire it.
His court expects him to behave according to the role of king.
The novel therefore explores the difference between having power and being free.
A person may possess authority over others while simultaneously being controlled by the expectations surrounding that authority.
4. Responsibility
Power creates responsibility.
The king cannot simply walk away from the consequences of his position.
His decisions affect an entire kingdom.
This creates an important moral question:
If someone does not want power but receives it, are they still responsible for what they do with it?
The novel leaves this question open.
5. Desire
Desire operates at several levels.
There is personal desire.
There is political desire.
There is sexual desire.
There is the desire for escape.
There is also the desire to control the past.
The curator desires something beyond her ordinary present life.
The king's lack of desire for power becomes equally significant.
Perry's novel therefore shows that desire can be powerful even when it takes the form of wanting to escape something.
6. Imagination
Imagination is central to both narratives.
The curator uses imagination to recreate the past.
Readers use imagination to enter the medieval world.
The king's court is also shaped by imagined rumours and expectations.
The novel suggests that imagination can create reality.
People act on what they believe, even when their beliefs are uncertain.
7. Escape
The curator turns to the past as a form of escape.
Her historical work gives her a way to avoid confronting her present.
This raises a question:
Can the past provide a safe place to hide?
The Booker Prize judges specifically ask whether history can ever be a safe place to escape the present. (The Booker Prizes)
The novel suggests that escape may provide temporary comfort, but the present cannot disappear completely.
8. Identity
The absence of names is significant.
The king has no personal name.
The curator has no name.
Even the kingdom is unnamed.
This makes them less like individual historical figures and more like symbolic characters.
The king can represent any ruler.
The curator can represent anyone who tries to understand the past.
The lack of names also encourages readers to focus on ideas rather than historical identification.
9. Mortality
The phrase "The King is dead, long live the King" appears throughout the novel.
It expresses an important paradox.
One individual king dies, but the institution of monarchy continues.
Therefore:
The individual is temporary; the institution appears permanent.
The novel uses this tension to explore mortality and political continuity. (The Booker Prizes)
The Symbolism of Food
Food is more than decoration in the novel.
It becomes a symbol of power.
A king does not simply eat.
His meals can become public ceremonies.
People prepare food for him.
People decide what he receives.
People observe whether he eats.
In this sense, food becomes political.
The curator's fake food creates another layer.
She uses artificial objects to recreate supposedly authentic history.
The replica food looks real but is not real.
This becomes a metaphor for historical reconstruction itself.
Fake Food and Fake History
The curator's replica food is carefully made to look authentic.
Visitors may believe they are seeing the past.
But they are actually seeing a modern reconstruction.
Similarly, readers receive a version of the medieval world through storytelling.
The novel therefore creates a fascinating connection:
replica food → reconstructed room → historical fiction → imagined past
The Museum as a Symbol
The museum is an important symbolic space.
A museum preserves objects from the past.
But preservation always involves selection.
Someone decides:
What should be preserved?
What should be displayed?
What should be hidden?
What should be explained?
What should be remembered?
Therefore, museums do not simply preserve history.
They also help construct public memory.
The curator's work becomes a metaphor for the way societies create historical narratives.
The King as a Symbol
The king represents the complicated nature of authority.
He has power but does not necessarily want it.
He is surrounded by people but remains isolated.
He is visible to everyone but personally difficult to know.
His situation demonstrates the difference between:
public identity and private identity.
The king is also a symbol of mortality.
Although he occupies the highest position in the kingdom, he remains a human being who will eventually die.
Narrative Structure
The novel uses a dual narrative.
One narrative follows the modern curator.
The other follows the medieval king.
These two stories are separated by time, but they share common concerns.
Both characters are connected with:
History
Power
Identity
Desire
Isolation
Escape
Storytelling
The two narratives gradually illuminate each other.
The Booker Prize describes the novel as moving between the present-day world and a medieval court. (The Booker Prizes)
Unnamed Characters and Places
The absence of conventional names is one of the novel's most interesting techniques.
Normally, historical fiction gives readers:
A king's name
A country
A date
A geographical location
Perry removes many of these details.
This creates uncertainty.
But it also gives the story a universal quality.
The king becomes the King.
The woman becomes the curator.
The kingdom becomes an unnamed place.
This makes the novel feel like a modern myth or fairy tale.
The Novel as a Puzzle
The structure of May We Feed the King resembles a puzzle.
Readers gradually try to understand how the two narratives connect.
The lack of information encourages readers to ask questions.
Who exactly is the king?
When did this kingdom exist?
Why is the curator so fascinated by him?
What is real?
What is imagined?
The novel does not immediately answer everything.
The Booker Prize judges have described the book as an "artful puzzle-box" that shifts perspectives and challenges the idea of a single historical truth. (The Booker Prizes)
Historical Fiction with a Difference
Traditional historical fiction usually attempts to reconstruct a recognisable historical period.
Perry takes a different approach.
She deliberately creates uncertainty.
The novel feels historical without belonging completely to one identifiable historical moment.
This allows her to focus on the idea of history rather than merely recreating historical facts.
The result is historical fiction that is also philosophical and experimental.
Language and Style
Perry's writing is lyrical and imaginative.
The novel contains detailed descriptions of objects, food, rooms and historical displays.
These descriptions create a rich sensory world.
The style also contributes to the dreamlike quality of the story.
The novel can feel like:
A historical tale
A fairy tale
A museum exhibition
A dream
A literary puzzle
This mixture is one of its distinctive qualities.
Literary Significance
May We Feed the King is significant because it challenges conventional historical fiction.
It asks readers to think about:
How history is reconstructed
How memory works
How stories become accepted as truth
Who controls historical narratives
How political power is remembered
Whether the past can really be recovered
The novel therefore has relevance not only to literature but also to history, museums, memory studies and cultural studies.
Booker Prize 2026 Significance
May We Feed the King was one of the six novels shortlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize. (The Booker Prizes)
It is also notable because it is a debut novel.
Perry's achievement is particularly interesting for students because the novel demonstrates how a writer can take a familiar genre—historical fiction—and reshape it through experimental narrative techniques.
Conclusion
May We Feed the King is a novel about the complicated relationship between past and present.
Through an unnamed modern curator and an unnamed medieval king, Rebecca Perry explores history, memory, imagination, desire and power.
The curator tries to recreate the past through museum displays and artificial food. The king struggles with a position of power that he never wanted.
Their stories are separated by centuries, yet they are connected by a shared human desire: the desire to understand, escape and give meaning to life.
The novel's refusal to provide precise names, dates and locations makes the reader question the difference between historical truth and historical storytelling.
Food, museums, monarchy and memory become symbols through which Perry explores the ways people construct reality.
Ultimately, May We Feed the King suggests that the past is never completely fixed. Every generation reconstructs it, interprets it and tells it again.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who wrote May We Feed the King?
Rebecca Perry wrote May We Feed the King.
2. When was the novel published?
It was published by Granta on 29 January 2026. (The Booker Prizes)
3. Is May We Feed the King Rebecca Perry's first novel?
Yes. It is her debut novel. (The Booker Prizes)
4. Who are the main characters?
The two central characters are an unnamed modern-day museum curator and an unnamed medieval king. (The Booker Prizes)
5. What is the novel about?
It moves between a present-day museum curator reconstructing the past and a medieval king who unexpectedly inherits the throne.
6. What are the major themes?
The major themes include history, memory, power, desire, imagination, identity, responsibility and storytelling.
7. Why is food important in the novel?
Food is connected with power, control, desire and historical reconstruction. The curator also uses replica food in her museum displays.
8. Why are the characters unnamed?
The deliberate absence of names and dates makes the story less tied to one specific historical event and encourages readers to think about history more generally. (The Booker Prizes)
9. What does the king symbolise?
The king represents the burden of political power, the conflict between public duty and private desire, and the temporary nature of human authority.
10. Is the novel a Booker Prize 2026 shortlisted book?
Yes. May We Feed the King is one of the six novels shortlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize. (The Booker Prizes)
11. Did the novel win another major prize?
Yes. It won the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2026. (The Booker Prizes)
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