Rebecca Perry in conversation

Blackwell’s Manchester, in partnership with the University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing, welcomes Rebecca Perry to celebrate the publication of her debut novel May We Feed the King. The event marks Perry’s move into fiction with a richly imaginative and reflective work that bridges history and the contemporary moment.

May We Feed the King follows a museum curator whose professional life is devoted to reconstructing the past, carefully arranging objects to suggest lives just out of sight. As she becomes increasingly absorbed in the story of an overlooked medieval king, the boundaries between her present life and historical fascination begin to blur. Running alongside this is the story of a reluctant monarch, ill at ease with power and vulnerable to rumour, intrigue and the threat of replacement.

Moving between these two perspectives, the novel offers a lyrical meditation on history, storytelling and authority, asking what it means for a life to be considered meaningful and for a ruler to be remembered as “great”. Thoughtful and atmospheric, it reflects on the allure of the past and the ways it can both illuminate and obscure the present.

Perry brings to the novel the precision and sensitivity of an acclaimed poet, shaping a debut that is formally inventive and emotionally resonant. This conversation offers insight into the making of the book and the ideas that animate its exploration of power, memory and imagination.