Northern Irish novelist and critic who early came under the influence of Henry James; he is best known for his romantic and mystical novels about boyhood and adolescence and for a notable autobiography, Apostate (1926).

After taking his degree at the University of Cambridge, Reid settled down in Belfast, where he spent most of his life. His novels include The Bracknels (1911; completely rewritten as Denis Bracknel, 1947); Following Darkness (1912; revised as Peter Waring, 1937); The Spring Song (1916); Pirates of the Spring (1919); Uncle Stephen (1931), which with The Retreat (1936) and Young Tom (1944) forms a trilogy; and Brian Westby (1934). He also wrote studies of William Butler Yeats (1915) and Walter de la Mare (1929).