Senate House, Malet St, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7HU, United Kingdom
Senate House of the University of London where Peter Hobley Davidson received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1954 and a Master of Arts in 1957.
Gallery of Peter Davison
Gateway House, Leicester LE1 9BH, United Kingdom
The Campus Centre Building of De Montfort University where Peter Hobley Davidson received a Doctor of Letters degree and an honorary Doctor of Arts in 1999.
Gallery of Peter Davison
Sydney, Australia
The Main Quadrangle of the University of Sydney where Peter Hobley Davidson received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1963.
Career
Gallery of Peter Davison
Mason Croft, Church St, Stratford-upon-Avon CV37 6HP, United Kingdom
The Garden of the Shakespeare Institute where Peter Hobley Davidson worked as a senior lecturer from 1964 to 1973.
Gallery of Peter Davison
Giles Ln, Canterbury CT2 7NZ, United Kingdom
The School of Arts Building at Kent's Canterbury campus of the University of Kent where Peter Hobley Davidson worked as a professor of English from 1979 to 1983.
Achievements
Membership
Awards
Order of the British Empire
The Officer's insignia of the Order of the British Empire which Peter Hobley Davidson received in 1999.
The Campus Centre Building of De Montfort University where Peter Hobley Davidson received a Doctor of Letters degree and an honorary Doctor of Arts in 1999.
The School of Arts Building at Kent's Canterbury campus of the University of Kent where Peter Hobley Davidson worked as a professor of English from 1979 to 1983.
(This account of Orwell's life is chiefly concerned with w...)
This account of Orwell's life is chiefly concerned with what influenced Orwell, his relations with publishers and editors, and the analysis of certain key experiences
Peter Hobley Davison is a British educator of English, author, and editor. He is considered as the main specialist in the life and works of George Orwell.
Background
Peter Hobley Davison was born on September 10, 1926, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, North East, United Kingdom. He is a son of Thomas Mather Davison, a master mariner, and Doris Davison (maiden name Hobley), a stage manager and movie researcher.
Education
Peter Hobley Davison studied at the University of London where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in 1954 and a Master of Arts three years later. Then, he pursued his studies at the University of Sydney which provided him with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1963.
The last year of the twenties century, Davison obtained a Doctor of Letters degree from De Montfort University as well as an honorary Doctor of Arts.
Peter Hobley Davison started his career in 1944 from military service at the Royal Navy. He completed the service in 1948 in the rank of petty officer and cumulated various jobs to earn his living.
It was in 1960 when he started his long-time teaching activity from a lecturer post at the University of Sydney which he occupied for four years. Then, he moved to the Shakespeare Institute of the University of Birmingham where he stayed till 1973.
The next six years Davison worked as a professor of English at the Saint David's College (currently the University of Wales, Lampeter). After, he occupied the same post at the University of Kent. Peter Davison left full-time teaching four years later and devoted himself to writing. He was appointed a Secretary to Trustees of Albany, London and joined the Selection committee of Panizzi Foundation at British Library where he served till 1993. A year earlier, he became a research professor at De Montfort University and headed the Bibliographical Society.
In addition to the above-mentioned teaching posts, he also worked in such institutions as Westfield College, later Queen Mary and Westfield College, the University of Leeds, and the University of Western Ontario.
Davison has edited a wide range of publications, from ‘Songs of the British Music Hall: A Critical Study’ to editions of William Shakespeare’s plays ‘Richard II’, ‘The Merchant of Venice’, and ‘Henry IV: Part I and Henry IV: Part 2’, and from drama criticism such as ‘Popular Appeal in English Drama to 1850’ and ‘Contemporary Drama and the Popular Dramatic Tradition in England’ to reconsiderations of George Orwell’s writings. Davison supervised the publication of editions of all Orwell’s writings. Authoritative editions of his nine books were published in 1986-87, eleven volumes of all his other writings, and including many letters to Orwell, appeared in 1998, some 6,500 pages. In 2013, Peter Hobley Davison edited Orwell's Diaries.
In addition to his published works, Davison wrote the screenplay for ‘The Rocks’, a thirty-minute film produced in 1963, and he supplied the script and narrative for ‘The Seven Deceits’, a staged dance production performed in 1978. He has provided words for piano music by Prokofiev and Khachaturian, performed by David Howells at the Edinburgh and Buxton Festivals, 1991-92.
Besides, Peter Hobley Davison contributed to many periodicals, including ‘Railways’, ‘Ink’ and ‘The Library’ of the Bibliographical Society.
Quotations:
"I see my work in facilitating understanding of what others have written, now mainly through writing and editing, but with still a little teaching. In addition to attempting to restore texts, I now also have the interesting task of helping restore a historic building in London. Apart from scholarly editing, most of my study and writing is concerned with drama."
Membership
Malone Society
,
United Kingdom
Interests
reading, walking, music
Connections
Peter Hobley Davison married Sheila Mary Bethel, a teacher, on March 5, 1949. The family produced three children named Simon, John and Hugh.