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Davidson, Peter

The Last of the Light, [63] 63

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20251201100046 Jonathan Law on The Idea of North

Northern Lights

Jonathan Law on Peter Davidson The Idea of North

These days I head to the Med like everyone else: but it wasn’t always so. As a young man, just starting to travel under my own steam, my instinct was always to head north: to the Pennines, the Lakes, Scotland. To a soft southerner there was something compelling in these landscapes – and at that age I preferred a stiff walk in any weather to the languors of the beach. The final adventure was to take the little train north from Dingwall, across the vast peatlands of Caithness, to the end of the line in Thurso. It seemed something to stand on the very top of Britain, to peer at the distant Orkneys through a veil of rain, and to remind yourself that you were now on the same latitude as Stockholm or Juneau.
20190901111206 Miranda Seymour, Peter Davidson - F. L. Griggs, Duntisbourne Rouse

The Twilight Hour

Miranda Seymour on Peter Davidson, The Last of the Light

Davidson’s book offers us a series of intense, lyrical and surprisingly moving meditations on landscapes, buildings and mythical settings, as seen at the close of day through the eyes of painters and writers. The Last of the Light is a spellbinding exploration of that haunted moment of transition, either on some particular evening or in the history of the civilizations through which Davidson effortlessly roams. Again and again we find ourselves confronting the familiar with fresh eyes, noticing the tiny but significant details that he brings to the fore and quickens into life.

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