Rebecca Perry, a former world-class trampolinist, has been longlisted for the Booker Prize for her debut novel "May We Feed the King", following her win of the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize in July.
A Unique Background
Perry, who began trampolining at age three and competed at the World Games in Canada when she was ten, says her athletic background gave her a unique perspective on the world. "At 10 years of age, I was the 11th best trampolinist in my age group in the world," she told The Mirror.
She explained how her time in the air influenced her writing: "I did spend more than a decade of my life in strange angles in the air looking at the door for a certain move to know when to twist. I do have lots of [memories] of seeing a person coming through a door as I'm [at] a weird 75-degree angle upside down."
Unexpected Success
Perry admitted she did not expect to win the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, thinking her novel was "a bit too weird a book to be honest." She said, "I did not at all [expect to win]. It would be mad if you did, wouldn't it? If you were just standing there expecting them to hear your name."
She described receiving the call from Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, as "particularly unbelievable" as it "changes things completely" for writers.
Inspiration and Themes
Perry drew inspiration from visiting Ham House in Richmond, where she felt a "very strong connection" with the past. She told a friend, "So I think I'd like to write about this kind of thing, this kind of set dressing and replica stuff. [It] did something to me."
The novel, set in two timelines, explores absolute power and its failures, influenced by current events. Perry said, "I was writing the bulk of the book at the height of the genocide in Gaza and Ukraine and Sudan. All of these things were happening. The TV and the internet was constantly [showing] absolute horror."
She reflected on the power of ordinary people: "As a society, everything we've been told to believe about the power we had and how we could make a difference, all of that was just being shown up as an absolute farce. We had no power whatsoever to do anything in the face of absolute horror."
"May We Feed the King" is out now.
