The Competition

"To take a sheet of paper and a pencil and make something where before there had been nothing; to feel the paper under my fist and the sound of the crayon's whisper across the page; to bring to life on the blank surface line, light and shadow…" Two hundred years ago, Edward Armiger stood at his easel and wondered what to paint. His problems are contemporary, even if his setting is different. His was a world in the grip of war, change and radical new ideas, but what was his place in it? He and his friends enter a painting competition at the Royal Academy that will establish the winner professionally, but when he's pitchforked into the gritty world of northern woollen mills, frame-breaking and food riots, his ideas are disrupted by Luddites and progressive political thinkers. When he returns to London, his new beliefs put career and friendships in jeopardy and his pursuit of love falters. Total failure is never far away. But what constitutes success? Written in a lucid style laced with fascinating period detail and vivid descriptions, The Competition takes the reader on a meticulously-researched but lively journey through the art and industrial worlds of Georgian England. "The Competition is a novel of astounding verisimilitude: it seems incredible that Miley was not present at these events. Yet Edward Armiger's struggles are of our own times too." Judith Lukin-Amundsen