I've had great fun reading DE Stevenson's Miss Buncle Married this week, but now I'm changing pace and tone - and direction - and heading north. Peter Davidson's book The Idea of North has been on my shelves for quite a while, but its moment seems to have come and I'm off to a good start.
"As with the compass needle, so people have always been powerfully attracted northwards; everyone carries within them their own concept of north. The Idea of North is a study, ranging widely in time and place, of some of the ways in which these ideas have found expression. Offering engaging meditation on solitude, absence and stillness, Peter Davidson shows north to be a goal rather than a destination, a place of revelation that is always somewhere absolute and austere - and eternally just out of reach."
Alexandra Harris says of it, "One of the most beautiful books I've read ... This is cultural history at its very best, unfolding new maps of imagination." That's good enough for me.
Oh, this sounds like something my husband would greatly enjoy! Thanks for the recommendation.
Posted by: Lesley | 28 January 2023 at 07:02 PM
You're welcome, Lesley. It's quite a wide-ranging book, and very interesting so far.
Posted by: Cornflower | 29 January 2023 at 09:19 PM