Irish writer. Born in Belfast, Reid is best known for his deft recreations of boyhood in
the trilogy of novels about Tom Barber: Uncle Stephen (1931), The Retreat (1936),
and Young Tom (1944), the latter winning the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. All
Reid’s novels focus on the coming of age of a young male protagonist and are often
strongly autobiographical.
Reid studied at the Royal Belfast Academical Institute, and was encouraged to write
by English novelist E M Forster. He also wrote critical analyses of the poets W B
Yeats and Walter de la Mare.