Debut Discussions - Amy Abdelnoor & Rebecca Perry at Hatchards, Piccadilly.

Amy Abdelnoor and Rebecca Perry discuss writing their debut novels, in conversation with Maggie Gee. We are delighted to welcome authors Amy Abdelnoor, Rebecca Perry and Maggie Gee to Hatchards to discuss ‘Ever Land’ and ‘May we Feed the King.’ It is the year 2000 when Dinah, a Jewish teenager from London, arrives in Israel with her family. Still reeling from the death of her beloved dad, the idea of having to start all over again daunts her. Dinah isn’t quite sure what to make of this seemingly pristine place: her new life seems soulless and suffocating. Alternating between past and present, and between Safa and Dinah, Ever Land is a gripping and powerful story that sheds light on the ongoing occupation of Palestine. It is a tale of belonging and identity, of devastation and displacement and – ultimately – of the enduring universality of humanity and love. Amy Abdelnoor is a British Arab writer and English teacher. She studied English and Arabic at the University of Cambridge. She lived and worked in the West Bank and in refugee camps in Lebanon in her early twenties. She is a curator, who spends her time dressing the rooms of historic buildings to bring them to life. But in the 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. May We Feed the King dances between the lives of a historical subject who risks the future of his kingdom and a woman who turns to the past to hide from her present. Laced with desire and longing, it is a playful, stirring meditation on history and storytelling: on what makes a King 'Great', and a life meaningful. Rebecca Perry was born in 1986 in London. She graduated from Manchester’s Centre for New Writing in 2008 and lives in London. Her novel, May We Feed the King, winner of the 2026 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, is longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize. Maggie Gee is the author of seventeen books, including a collection of short fiction, The Blue, and a writer’s memoir, My Animal Life. Her most recent novel was The Red Children (2022), a fairy tale about migration inspired by the new understanding of Neanderthals as our ancestors. Maggie has been widely translated and given readings and talking to writers around the world. She has served writers on the boards of PLR, the SoA, and as a Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature, where she was the first woman Chair of Council. . It promises to be an absolutely fascinating evening, do come along if you can!