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Sarah Tytler – Henrietta Keddie

Henrietta Keddie was born in Cupar in 1827. Her father Philip was a solicitor and she was the youngest of six children, five of them girls.  Her older sisters went to Castlehill School, but the family moved to Elie and Henrietta was taught by her sister Margaret. She was sent to a boarding school in Edinburgh for a year (age thirteen) to finish her education.                                                       

 In 1848 she returned to Cupar with three of her sisters, and they set up a series of schools for girls, eventually settling in Westfield House with ten boarders.  Henrietta was an accomplished and prolific writer, and in 1869 she was earning enough money to give up the school.   She wrote under the name “Sarah Tytler”, and her most famous book (1887), “Logie Town”, was set in Cupar.                                  

Her last book, in 1911, was “Three Generations: The Story of a Middle-Class Scottish Family”.

She wrote other non-fiction books on subjects including Art and Artists; Jane Austen; Royal Ladies and Tudor Queens and Princesses; and the Songstresses of Scotland.

Henrietta died in 1914, and in total, she published around 100 books. We have a large number of her novels in our Local Lending Collection, so if you would like to find out more about the work of this renowned local author, check out Sarah Tytler in our online catalogue.

Visit Spydus and look for books at Cupar library.

A selection of Sarah Tytler’s books at Cupar library