Meta Mayne Reid

Meta Mayne Reid (1905–1991) was a Northern Irish children's writer.

Early life and education

Meta Mayne Reid was born to Marcus and Elvina Hopkins in Woodlesford, Yorkshire in 1905 and grew up there although her family was from Ulster in Ireland. She had one sister, Audrey. She was educated at home through governesses before going to Leeds Girls' High School. Mayne Reid went on to attend Manchester University. Later she moved to Crawfordsburn in County Down when her parents returned to the north of Ireland and there she was married to Dr E. Mayne Reid.

Work

It was in Ulster that she set most of her novels, both historical fiction and modern settings with a fantasy side. She wrote more than twenty children's novels as well as two novels for adults and one collection of poetry. Reid was involved with the Belfast chapter of PEN as both secretary and, from 1970 to 1972, president.

Bibliography

Novels

The Land Is Dear, 1936

Far-Off Fields Are Green, 1937

Children's books

Phelim and the Creatures, 1952

Carrigmore Castle, 1954

All Because of Dawks, 1955

Dawks Does It Again, 1956

The Cuckoo at Coolnean, 1956

Tiffany and the Swallow Rhyme, 1956

Dawks on Robbers' Mountain, 1957

Dawks and the Duchesss, 1958

Strangers in Carrigmore, 1958

The McNeills at Rathcapple, 1959

Storm on Kildoney, 1961

Sandy and the Hollow Book, 1961

The Tobermillin Oracle, 1962

With Angus in the Forest, 1963

The Tinkers' Summer, 1965

The Silver Fighting Cocks, 1966

The House at Spaniard's Bay, 1967

The Glen Beyond the Door, 1968

The Two Rebels, 1969

Beyond the Wide World's End, 1972

The Plotters of Pollnashee, 1973

Snowbound by the Whitewater, 1975

The Noguls and the Horse, 1976

A Dog Called Scampi, 1980

Poetry

No Ivory Tower, 1974

References

1905 births

1991 deaths

20th-century British women writers

Irish children's writers

Irish women children's writers

British children's writers

British women children's writers