Rebecca Perry Wins Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize

Rebecca Perry wins Waterstones debut fiction prize for ‘delicious and dream-like’ novel

May We Feed the King, about a museum curator and a medieval monarch, was praised by judges for its ‘crisp, cool prose’ and ‘poet’s eye for detail’ Author and poet Rebecca Perry has won the 2026 Waterstones debut fiction prize for May We Feed the King, praised as a “delicious and dream-like tale”. Chosen from a shortlist of six novels, May We Feed the King follows a present-day curator whose job is to dress rooms in historic houses. (“When you see a replica feast scene in the great hall of an ...

By Emma Loffhagen