Cruft, Kitty

(Catherine Cruft)

PERSONAL:

Female.

CAREER:

National Monuments Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, curator until 1991.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(Compiler) Edinburgh Old and New, EP Publishing (Wakefield, England), 1975.

(Editor, with Andrew Fraser) James Craig, 1744-1795, Mercat Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1995.

(With John Dunbar and Richard Fawcett) Borders ("Buildings of Scotland’ series, Volume 9), Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kitty Cruft and her coauthors John Dunbar and Richard Fawcett contributed the ninth volume to the ‘Buildings of Scotland’ series, titled Borders. In its more than 800 pages, this book provides a thorough survey of the historical Scottish counties of Selkirkshire, Roxburghshire, Peeblesshire, and Berwickshire, all located in the southeastern part of the modern government council area known as the Scottish Borders. This area, and the character of the people who lived there in the past, was immortalized in various works by the historical novelist Sir Walter Scott. The book begins with a long introduction, presenting the topography, history, and man-made features unique to the Borders, including monuments, castles, railways, and roads. In the ‘Gazetteer’ section, specific localities are introduced and its buildings described in detail. The Borders area is known for beautiful, unspoiled landscapes and interesting historical structures, and so this volume in the series is ‘especially welcome,’ according to Hugh Massingberd in the Spectator. ‘Indeed it should serve more than any other book since the heyday of Sir Walter Scott to open our eyes to the romance and beauty of the old counties.’ Massingberd added: ‘The authors are to be congratulated on a phenomenal achievement in recording an extraordinary range of buildings."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice, July 1, 2006, review of Borders, p. 1983.

Contemporary Review, autumn, 2006, review of Borders, p. 404.

Spectator, March 4, 2006, Hugh Massingberd, review of Borders, p. 44.

Times Literary Supplement, January 19, 2007, Henry Potts, review of Borders, p. 10.

ONLINE

Amazon.ca,http://www.amazon.ca/ (October 17, 2007), biographical information about Kitty Cruft.