PETER DAVIDSON was born in Scotland in 1957 and educated at the universities of Cambridge and York. He is Professor in the Department of Art History at the University of Aberdeen. He published the prose book The Idea of North with Reaktion Books in 2005 and a verse collection, The Palace of Oblivion, with Carcanet in 2007. As librettist he worked with the composer Paul Mealor on the opera 74 Degrees North, performed by Scottish Opera in 2008, and the oratorio Crucifixus, published by Novello and currently being recorded. He lives in the country in northern Scotland.