The Green avenue : The life and writings of Forrest Reid, 1875-1947

Brian Taylor

Forrest Reid's books were never commercial successes, and many have fallen out of print. Yet he has been called 'the first Ulster novelist of European status', and he continues to attract a small and loyal audience. Apart from three years at Cambridge, he lived in Belfast from his birth in 1875 till his death in 1947. He cared little for literary coteries, preferring that a small circle of friends, amongst whom he numbered E. M. Forster and Walter de la Mare, should visit him in his quiet, bachelor home in the suburbs. However, the richness of his imaginative life stands in stark contrast to this apparent provincial obscurity. Reid was obsessed with boyhood. He loved boys, wrote about them and wanted to write about nothing else. Throughout his work the recurrent theme is childhood and the loss of its complicated innocence.