Novelist. Davidson was born on Rosemount Viaduct in Aberdeen, the daughter of a butcher. Her father died as the result of an motorcycle accident in 1934 the straitened financial circumstances of the family caused her to leave school at 15 and take an office job. In the 1960s, Davidson returned to college to train as a primary school teacher, a role she filled until she retired in 1982. It was only in retirement that she took to writing, publishing her first novel Brow of the Gallowgate in 1990. Her other works have included The Road to Rowanbrae (1991), Girl with the Creel (1997), Cousins At War (2005), and Jam and Jeopardy (2006). She published her thirteenth novel, Monday Girl, in 2007 at the age of 85.
Davidson's autobiography, Gift of the Gallowgate, appeared in 2004.
She died in Aberdeen.