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book cover for May We Feed the King

May We Feed the King

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Pub Date 29 Jan 2026 | Archive Date Not set

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Description

She is a curator, who spends her time dressing the rooms of historic buildings to bring them to life. A replica pie, half-eaten, perched on a small desk in the servant's quarters. A fruit bowl, filled with artificial apples, pomegranates and pears, with one piece missing. It should feel as though her subject has just left the room; the air should be alive with their energy. But in the great halls and 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, rushed to the throne after the untimely deaths of his two older brothers. He has no hunger for power, and he resists the crown. But as winter turns to spring, whispers begin to fly around the court. Some say he is weak and will lead the country to ruin. Others call him a cuckhold, unable to satisfy his wife. And with the 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 a historical subject who resists the march of progress and a woman who turns to the past to hide from her present, to offer a beguiling meditation on history and storytelling: on what makes a King 'Great', and a life meaningful.

She is a curator, who spends her time dressing the rooms of historic buildings to bring them to life. A replica pie, half-eaten, perched on a small desk in the servant's quarters. A fruit bowl...


Advance Praise

May We Feed The King floored me with the precision of its emotional insights and eccentric view of history-as-narrative. This novella is a sort of perfect snowglobe, presenting a decadent world in miniature that surprises us with the depth of its reflections on power, yearning and loneliness, even as it revels in its own delicious kitsch... I can confidently say I've never read anything else quite like it, and that I loved every page’
A.K. Blakemore

‘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

May We Feed The King floored me with the precision of its emotional insights and eccentric view of history-as-narrative. This novella is a sort of perfect snowglobe, presenting a decadent world in...


Available Editions

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9781803513867
PRICE £14.99 (GBP)
PAGES 272

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