In these painterly essays Davidson reflects on art, place, history and landscape. Distance and Memory is his testament to the cold, clear beauty of the north.
Peter Davidson was born in Scotland in 1957 and is Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Aberdeen. He is the author of the topographical book The Idea of North (Reaktion, 2005); a monograph on the internationalism of the seventeenth century, The Universal Baroque (MUP, 2007); and a collection of poems, The Palace of Oblivion (Carcanet, 2008).
"This is a poet's book, his mind wide open to the cultures of the world, especially of the north, specifically Aberdeenshire. The language is luscious, musical and precise, rich with quotation and the cultures of, especially, northern Europe, from minerology and industry to poetry, painting, music."
– Gillian Clarke, National Poet of Wales
"A masterpiece [...] beyond being merely clever or wise: a beautiful book."
– Scottish Review of Books