Carcanet Press - Distance and Memory

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'There are still larks on the Laverock Hill, so many even now that sometimes the cold sky above the farm road seems full of them. And from the far end of the footpath through the castle wood you can see the shadow line which the slope of the hill throws across Ardinn in the next valley to the south… In so many senses this secret landscape and its past lie in the shadow half of things.'

This is a book about remoteness: a memoir of places observed in solitude, of the texture of life through the quiet course of the seasons in the far north of Scotland. It is a book grounded in the singularity of one place – a house in northern Aberdeenshire – and threaded through with an unshowy commitment to the lost and the forgotten. 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.

Foreword by Robert Macfarlane

Prologue

The Green Evenings

Secret Hills

SPRING

Orkney

Northern Waters

Spar Boxes, Northern England

SUMMER

Summer in the North

The Rich Boys of Bygdøy and other fragments of a summer

A Northward Journey and a Summer Storm

HARVEST

Bringing Home a Portrait by Cosmo Alexander

Painting Northern Scotland

The Food of the North (with Jane Stevenson)

THE BACK END OF THE YEAR

Visits in Autumn

A Letter from Copenhagen

The Grim Consolations of the North

The Aesthetics of Remoteness and the North

WINTER

Winter in the North

Epilogue: The Snow over Madrid

Acknowledgements

Peter Davidson was born in Scotland in 1957. He is currently Senior Research Fellow at Campion Hall, University of Oxford. Peter has edited the Clarendon Poems and Translations of Sir Richard Fanshawe (Vol I, 1998; II, 1999); the Clarendon anthology of seventeenth-century English poetry, Poetry and Revolution (1998), and (with Jane ... read more

'Peter Davidson's profoundly civilised and lyrical book is [...] shot through with exquisite poignancies. These have as much to do with the nature of the place - the nature of extreme northerliness - as with the author's finely trained eye. [...] he knows how to see into things, and not only the simply visible, but also the rituals, the inner structures, and music - Lieder and ballad at the piano - of a sequestered, professorial life in rural Aberdeenshire. [...] The stuff and pace of poetry underwrites Prof Davidson's nights and days. He has written a most remarkable book in the same class of accomplishment as the work of Robert Macfarlane, who introduces it.'
Andrew McNeillie, Country Life '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 [...] The book glows with moments of light, on a city, a river, in a room.'
Gillian Clarke, National Poet of Wales 'Peter Davidson has written a remarkable and unusual book - I have started the book but want to make it last the summer. It is a sustained prose poem, very moving in its effect... I am savouring it, reading it slowly, hoping to prolong the pleasure of these exquisite essays through the summer. It is, I think, one of the most beautiful books to be written in Scotland for many decades.'
Alexander McCall Smith Praise for Peter Davidson 'This impressive and unusual collection sets the tone straight away: "The falcon flown, far in the starving air / So many lost, this long, half-secret war." Davidson's verse is meticulous, metrical, alliterative; driven as much by musical half-rhyme as full rhymes; historically specific; highly emotional but broadly impersonal (these are the opposite of anecdotal poems); and intensely romantic.'
Victoria Moul, The Friday Poem
'He shows us in Arctic Elegies a land and state of mind both lyrically described and thrillingly delighted in - a land and state of mind both eminently deserving of celebration, and capable of shining suddenly with beauty and transformative warmth.'
Derek Turner, Brazen Head
'...these poems adopt and create song forms, giving an eerie and unsettling tone that combines the archaic and the modern in striking ways... Davidson's skill with rhyme and an almost-liturgical syntax give a tense and moving atmosphere.'

Sean Hewitt, The Irish Times
'Davidson's work is as ravishing as it is mysterious, and although they are elegies these poems are deeply joyful occasions.'
David Wheatley, The Guardian
'This is a "concept album" of a collection, in that all the poems sing to each other. It has a pleasingly archaic feel... There is a long-suffering melancholy and a sense that even the frost might melt.'
Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman

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Distance and Memory Peter Davidson Foreword by Robert Macfarlane 10% off eBook (EPUB) 10% off Paperback Categories: 21st Century, British, Scottish Imprint: Lives and Letters Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (320 pages) (Pub. Jun 2013) 9781847771551 £14.95 £13.45 eBook (EPUB) Needs ADE! (Pub. Jun 2013) 9781847772794 £14.95 £13.45 Digital access available through Exact Editions To use the EPUB version, you will need to have Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) installed on your device. You can find out more at https://www.adobe.com/uk/solutions/ebook/digital-editions.html. Please do not purchase this version if you do not have and are not prepared to install, Adobe Digital Editions. Description Excerpt Author Contents Reviews 'There are still larks on the Laverock Hill, so many even now that sometimes the cold sky above the farm road seems full of them. And from the far end of the footpath through the castle wood you can see the shadow line which the slope of the hill throws across Ardinn in the next valley to the south… In so many senses this secret landscape and its past lie in the shadow half of things.' This is a book about remoteness: a memoir of places observed in solitude, of the texture of life through the quiet course of the seasons in the far north of Scotland. It is a book grounded in the singularity of one place – a house in northern Aberdeenshire – and threaded through with an unshowy commitment to the lost and the forgotten. 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. Foreword by Robert Macfarlane Prologue The Green Evenings Secret Hills SPRING Orkney Northern Waters Spar Boxes, Northern England SUMMER Summer in the North The Rich Boys of Bygdøy and other fragments of a summer A Northward Journey and a Summer Storm HARVEST Bringing Home a Portrait by Cosmo Alexander Painting Northern Scotland The Food of the North (with Jane Stevenson) THE BACK END OF THE YEAR Visits in Autumn A Letter from Copenhagen The Grim Consolations of the North The Aesthetics of Remoteness and the North WINTER Winter in the North Epilogue: The Snow over Madrid Acknowledgements Peter Davidson was born in Scotland in 1957. He is currently Senior Research Fellow at Campion Hall, University of Oxford. Peter has edited the Clarendon Poems and Translations of Sir Richard Fanshawe (Vol I, 1998; II, 1999); the Clarendon anthology of seventeenth-century English poetry, Poetry and Revolution (1998), and (with Jane ... read more 'Peter Davidson's profoundly civilised and lyrical book is [...] shot through with exquisite poignancies. These have as much to do with the nature of the place - the nature of extreme northerliness - as with the author's finely trained eye. [...] he knows how to see into things, and not only the simply visible, but also the rituals, the inner structures, and music - Lieder and ballad at the piano - of a sequestered, professorial life in rural Aberdeenshire. [...] The stuff and pace of poetry underwrites Prof Davidson's nights and days. He has written a most remarkable book in the same class of accomplishment as the work of Robert Macfarlane, who introduces it.' Andrew McNeillie, Country Life '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 [...] The book glows with moments of light, on a city, a river, in a room.' Gillian Clarke, National Poet of Wales 'Peter Davidson has written a remarkable and unusual book - I have started the book but want to make it last the summer. It is a sustained prose poem, very moving in its effect... I am savouring it, reading it slowly, hoping to prolong the pleasure of these exquisite essays through the summer. It is, I think, one of the most beautiful books to be written in Scotland for many decades.' Alexander McCall Smith Praise for Peter Davidson 'This impressive and unusual collection sets the tone straight away: "The falcon flown, far in the starving air / So many lost, this long, half-secret war." Davidson's verse is meticulous, metrical, alliterative; driven as much by musical half-rhyme as full rhymes; historically specific; highly emotional but broadly impersonal (these are the opposite of anecdotal poems); and intensely romantic.' Victoria Moul, The Friday Poem 'He shows us in Arctic Elegies a land and state of mind both lyrically described and thrillingly delighted in - a land and state of mind both eminently deserving of celebration, and capable of shining suddenly with beauty and transformative warmth.' Derek Turner, Brazen Head '...these poems adopt and create song forms, giving an eerie and unsettling tone that combines the archaic and the modern in striking ways... Davidson's skill with rhyme and an almost-liturgical syntax give a tense and moving atmosphere.' Sean Hewitt, The Irish Times 'Davidson's work is as ravishing as it is mysterious, and although they are elegies these poems are deeply joyful occasions.' David Wheatley, The Guardian 'This is a "concept album" of a collection, in that all the poems sing to each other. It has a pleasingly archaic feel... There is a long-suffering melancholy and a sense that even the frost might melt.' Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman You might also be interested in: Ice Gillian Clarke The Shepherd's Calendar John Clare, Edited by Tim Chilcott Then Alison Brackenbury	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Poetry Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Lives and Letters PN Review Video Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! The Carcanet Blog that which appears: Thomas A Clark read more Come Here to This Gate: Rory Waterman read more Near-Life Experience: Rowland Bagnall read more The Silence: Gillian Clarke read more Baby Schema: Isabel Galleymore read more The Iron Bridge: Rebecca Hurst read more
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