Pru Kitching 1951-2026

It is with great sadness Vane Women report the death of Pru Kitching on 23^rd February 2026 in Newcastle upon Tyne. Pru first came to the attention of Vane Women when she was studying for an MA in Creative Writing at Northumbria University. Jackie Litherland was lecturing there and recognised Pru’s potential as a poet rather than a fiction writer. Vane Women were delighted to publish Pru’s first collection, All aboard the moving staircase, in 2004. Later, she joined Vane Women and her second collection, The Kraków Egg, (Arrowhead Press) followed in 2009. Her voice was both tragic and comic, her poetry infused with colours and music. Pru and Chris Powell initiated a Vane Women project with Harehope Quarry in Weardale and the local community. This led to the publication of Collecting Stones in 2008, an anthology of poems and stories inspired by the quarry.

Pru grew up in Weardale when her parents moved from Marske. After studying drama at university, she worked in stage management where she met Gerry Kitching, artist and set designer. They married and worked in theatre, both at home and abroad. Pru never fully recovered from Gerry’s sudden and unexpected death from a heart attack. She went on to work, mainly abroad, before returning to Weardale to transform Pinfold Mill into a beautiful home for her parents and herself. Anyone who met Pru will know she had a real talent for colour - her homes were always stylish and elegant. In her move to the house she renovated in Heaton, she found her ‘tribe’ in the left wing, socialist, artistic community of the street and rapidly made new friends. Pru was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at an early age. Latterly, the complications meant that she began losing her sight and later also suffered from dementia.

Pru was a dear friend. We worked together to support inmates at Frankland Prison in writing poetry. Pru was amazing at understanding and relating to the men, young and old, and giving compassionate, supportive feedback. We’d made the decision before our first visit not to treat the men any differently from other adult groups we’d tutored. We never forgot the kindness, welcome and gratitude from the men. Frankland had a very enlightened governor and staff who were very supportive of the men. It was an outstanding, and to us pleasantly surprising, example of what prison should and can be.

Despite Skating on Thin Paint in Pru’s first book, she was a great cook and always made visits to Weardale a joy. Vane Women have very happy memories of meetings at Daddry Shield, Pru surrounded by her mum and dad and always a dog. Pru was witty, fun, by turns acerbic and always a generous host and friend.

On a Hall Garth summer writing school in Bilsdale, Tamar Yoseloff gave out postcards of abstract paintings. Pru wrote the following unpublished poem in response, which I think expresses the sadness she never got over at losing the love of her life, Gerry.

Fall-Out
(after Miro’s ‘Painting, 1926’)

It all comes out of the blue
so shocking that her tears
drop red
her little black dress
drops off

the bits are everywhere
her smile, her left breast
and red nipple
one of her eyes
a piece of scalp
with hairs attached

and her arms and hands
have gone in search
as if she thought it possible
to put herself back together.

Tribute by Annie Wright