Booker Prize 2026 · Audiobook Review
Written by Rebecca Perry · Narrated by Sarah Barron and Ian Dunnett Jnr
Rebecca Perry’s inventive debut turns museum curation into a clever and absorbing exploration of power, memory and the stories we call history.
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2026, this is proper writing: intelligent, playful and luxuriating in detail without ever becoming weighed down by it.
The Story
An unnamed curator creates staged historic rooms, selecting and arranging objects to tell stories about the past. Her work becomes entwined with fragments from the life of an almost-forgotten king: a reluctant ruler who rejects violence and privilege, only to be judged weak.
Moving between the curator and the medieval court, Rebecca Perry explores how history is preserved, reconstructed and sometimes quietly rewritten. Someone, after all, must decide which objects survive—and what story they should tell.
The Narrators
Sarah Barron reads the curator’s sections with a clear, calm and measured delivery. She is immediately easy to listen to and suits the novel’s thoughtful modern voice beautifully.
Ian Dunnett Jnr brings the medieval court vividly to life, supplying excellent and distinctive voices for its many characters. Together, the two narrators give the novel’s separate worlds their own identities while making them feel part of the same story.
The Waffleometer
This is a novel rich in detail, but it never feels bloated. To borrow its own delightful phrase, we are not drowning in details—we are luxuriating in them.
Scores
Story & Writing: 4.5 / 5
Narration: 4.5 / 5
Waffleometer: 1 / 5 (lower is better)
The Verdict
May We Feed the King is inventive, intelligent and beautifully written. Its playful structure gradually reveals a thoughtful examination of power, historical memory and the unreliable business of reconstructing the past.
Sarah Barron and Ian Dunnett Jnr complement each other splendidly, creating an audiobook that is both absorbing and easy to follow. This is proper writing—and one of the strongest novels on the Booker Prize 2026 shortlist.