Confessions of a Highland Art Dealer | 25 - 25 October 2023

-Longlisted for Highland Book Prize -

"An Unexpected Page-turner"

"I predict it'll become cult reading for gallery owners, artists and art lovers everywhere"

"It’s such a beautiful, honest, kind book. Storytelling as it should be. Buy it. It’s a joy. "

"It’s just bloody good"

This memoir begins in the wild Highlands of the nineties and ends in our much-changed present times. It is a secret tale of artists, art and the world as seen by Kilmorack Gallery's founder Tony Davidson.
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Davidson writes with passion and wit, but above all, originality.

'An unexpected page-turner'

The Scotsman

‘The book is surreal and magical, painting in jewel colours a lost world of eccentrics and artistic endeavour.’

The Inverness Courier, October 2022

'A multifaceted portrait of an inspiring Scotland, an eccentric art world, and an entertaining author. A compelling and thought-provoking read that turned my porridge into a bowl of surreal.'

Kevin MacNeil, author of The Brilliant & Forever

'Entertaining'

Sunday Post

'The story of Tony and his Gallery and also the modern day history of The Aird. I stayed up most of the night turning page after page. What a contribution you have made to art, to the life of the building and to the area. I'm glad it's been documented. Please write more!'

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'A wonderful and well written book. Tony Davidson’s passion for art, the history of places and buildings and the weather-lashed beauty of the North of Scotland fills every chapter. The love is kneaded, as it always is, by moments of grief and lasting environmental anger.'

'Mr. Davidson writes with passion and wit, but above all, originality. His unique view of the art world and the wider world we all inhabit is expressed with great insight. The characters and places are real. The life he has lived is shared with us in his own style, and his reflections on it's themes are revealed in this journey.
I read 'Confessions' straight through in one sitting and was left with a genuine sense of adventure, from the magic realism of Black Allan to the darker environmental and political issues we glimpse as the story comes into the present era.'
Buy direct from Kilmorack Gallery's website

Buy from Waterstones

Buy Kindle from Amazon

Buy paper back from Amazon
Tony Davidson founded Kilmorack Gallery in 1997, repairing and using a redundant eighteen-century church to house exhibitions of contemporary artists. Much has changed in the twenty-five years since then – technologically, economically and environmentally - and these new worlds unfold in Davidson’s first book ‘Confession of a Highland Art Dealer.’

‘I started writing Confessions because of an urge and found it hard to stop. The distant past somehow felt solid while the present was so fresh and turbulent it has all the qualities of a dream. When you write you realise the power of simplicity, and hopefully re-find what is important.’

Tony was born in Edinburgh in 1967, moved to the Highlands in 1993 and has exhibited and written about the work by over eighty of Scotland’s most interesting artists since founding Kilmorack Gallery.

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Confessions of a Highland Art Dealer: Tony Davidson

-Longlisted for Highland Book Prize -

"An Unexpected Page-turner"

"I predict it'll become cult reading for gallery owners, artists and art lovers everywhere"

"It’s such a beautiful, honest, kind book. Storytelling as it should be. Buy it. It’s a joy. "

"It’s just bloody good"

Buy direct from Kilmorack Gallery's website

Buy from Waterstones

Buy Kindle from Amazon

Buy paper back from Amazon

Scotsman Review

Buy direct

Some questions to Tony about the book

Sample Chapter

Woodwose Books

Confessions Endorsements