A Right-Royal Face-Off

by Simon Edge

It was a time of “fake news” and bitter and toxic messages in the social realm. It was a time of passionate, biased loyalties. Yes, it was 1777 and the year of a feud between artist Thomas Gainsborough and the number one painter in Great Britain. Both artists were the Instagrammers of their day. And thanks to author Simon Edge, we get a hilarious portrait of their daily lives and challenges. This may be the best book you read this summer- certainly the funniest. It features a palette of lively characters and emotions, painted on a canvas that goes between 1777 and our modern day. I may reread this book very soon. But first I’m off to the art museum. Enjoy and let me know what you think about this book!

A Right Royal Face-Off- About the Book!

It is 1777, and England’s second-greatest portrait artist, Thomas Gainsborough, has a thriving practice a stone’s thrown from London’s royal palaces, while the press talks up his rivalry with Sir Joshua Reynolds, the pedantic theoretician who is the top dog of British portraiture.

Fonder of the low life than high society, Gainsborough loathes pandering to grand sitters, but he changes his tune when he is commissioned to paint King George III and his large family. In their final, most bitter competition, who will be chosen as court painter, Tom or Sir Joshua?

Meanwhile, two and a half centuries later, a badly damaged painting turns up on a downmarket antiques TV show being filmed in Suffolk. Could the monstrosity really be, as its eccentric owner claims, a Gainsborough? If so, who is the sitter? And why does he have donkey’s ears?

Mixing ancient and modern as he did in his acclaimed debut The Hopkins Conundrum, Simon Edge takes aim at fakery and pretension in this highly original celebration of one of our greatest artists.

‘A glorious comedy of painting and pretension’ Ryan O’Neill

Purchase Links 

Readers can order the book from the Lightning Books website at 50% off (with free UK p&p) if you enter this code at checkout – BLOGTOURFACE

http://eye-books.com/books/a-right-royal-face-off

JENA’S REVIEW

A Right Royal Face-Off: A Georgian Comedy Featuring Thomas Gainsborough and Another Painter by Simon Edge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Now that I’m done chuckling and smiling, and I’ve come to the end of this terrific story, It’s time to post my review. I have thought of two possible beginnings:
“This is the book that you didn’t know you wanted to read…but trust me, you’ll love it!”; or
“Just when you think there are no more original plot-lines for a book, along comes this one!”

Pick whichever opening sentence you want, and we’ll get on with the review for this book, which is about Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds and, of course, painting. As an American, I remember these names from a long ago college art history survey class, but at least that prepared me for “Jeopardy”. “Who painted The Blue Boy?”

Author Simon Edge’s book brings Tom Gainsborough to life as a likable chap. He reminded me of Phil on “Modern Family”, or any other hapless TV sit-com dad, trying his best to take care of his bossy, chaotic family. Mr. Gainsborough is a successful portrait painter, although he is number 2 to Sir Reynolds, the President of the Royal Academy of Art. Part of the story involves his ongoing feud with his rival- if only they had had Twitter back then.

Not only did they not have social media, they didn’t have phones, or even cameras. So, in lieu of selfies, rich people had to sit for their portraits, many of which were life-size paintings. (Back then, art exhibits were the Instagram of the times.) Our good friend Tom was no artistic dreamer following his muse. He was a practical businessman, churning out commissioned portraits as fast as he could. He was truly talented, in a lyrical way and one of his best gigs was painting portraits of the large royal family of King George III (“Who was King during the American War?”)

In addition to Mr. Gainsborough’s daily life and painting challenges-so interesting how he set up his landscape paintings and the day the piglets came is so funny- we are also treated to revealing letters written by the Gainsborough footman to his mother, which ties in to a hilarious modern day story line about a sketchy new TV show about antiques, “Britain’s Got Treasures.” Art history and provenance are exciting! The modern day characters including Muriel Mudge are well drawn and are just as appealing as the historic figures, giving readers a charmingly hilarious story. Which gives me one more question for “Jeopardy”- “What is the best humorous historical fiction book?” Highly recommend.
Thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources and the publisher for a review copy. This is my honest review.

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Simon Edge was born in Chester and read philosophy at Cambridge University.

He was editor of the pioneering London paper Capital Gay before becoming a gossip columnist on the Evening Standardand then a feature writer on the Daily Express, where he was also a theatre critic for many years.

He has an MA in Creative Writing from City University, London. His first novel, The Hopkins Conundrum, was longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award. He lives in Suffolk.

Read more about Simon and his work at www.simon-edge.com.

Social Media Links – 

Twitter: @simonjedge

Instagram: @simonjedge

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