May We Feed the King, a 2026 novel by Rebecca Perry, opens with a medieval palace hiring a curator to dress its rooms to celebrate an important anniversary. This curator is all over the details of her job. She is particularly interested in representations of food, using various cleverly crafted fake food items to give the illusion of long-lost meals in progress.

The curator’s background research in the palace archives takes us on an imaginative journey through the reign of a reluctant king. This account takes up much of the book, presenting a story based on much gossip and hearsay. Even contemporary witnesses could not be sure what was really going on.

I was intrigued that the curator, initially a fussy eater, starts to develop a good appetite through the course of her project. Maybe she comes to terms with the fact that real food does not hang around for long. We live in a world where what keeps us alive is perishable. The curator is clearly dealing with relationship dramas in the background. Although there is plenty in life we can’t rely on, food, such a here-today-and-gone-tomorrow resource, is ironically what keeps us going.

This book might be about history, but I preferred to think it was about finding something we can rely on in a world where nothing lasts.

An interesting read, brutal in parts, sometimes confusing. It’s more a bruised windfall than shiny, freshly picked Braeburn – and all the better for that.