What happened to Forrest Reid?
E. M. Forster once described Forrest Reid as “the most important man in Belfast“. Why has this unique and brilliant novelist been forgotten?
This Tuesday was the 150th anniversary of the birth of Forrest Reid, Northern Ireland’s most important - and forgotten - novelist.
For those who are interested in his work, and why he is no longer fashionable, I wrote a piece about him for UnHerd, which you can read here.
As for those who are new to Reid’s work, I would recommend his novel Young Tom and his first autobiography Apostate. Both are near flawless, and quite unlike anything else I’ve ever read.
And as a teaser, here’s the piece I wrote about Reid for the closing of 2019 BAFTA Awards, delivered by Joanna Lumley.
The E. M. Forster quote you included in the introduction to your book, Andrew, is very apposite: 'If you don't like people, put up with them as well you can. Don't try to love them: you can't, you'll only strain yourself. But try to tolerate them.' I can get to that! Forster's other comments on the staid, prosaic yet indispensable qualities of tolerance were also sublime.
Forrest Reid is a name new to me but I shall enquire at our local library on your recommendation. They did stock a copy of The New Puritans, after all.
If you travel around down here in north Devon you'll see The Tarka Trail signposted everywhere as well as The Tarka Line, Tarka Country Inns, Tarka Caravan Parks, etc because people have heard of Tarka the Otter yet so few know of Henry Williamson, the book's author and another forgotten genius. Williamson took part in the Christmas Day truce but later aligned himself with Mosley and was never forgiven. Damned for wrongthink, whether out of political naivete or actual fascism, every line of his writing bleeds a love of the English countryside. Dandelion Days ('Gets as near to the heart of a boy as anything I have ever read,' - TLS) remains the one book I'll take with me to the bunker.
Yesterday after listening to your interview with Andrew Gold, I bought "Apostate" and I'm planning to read it next