[2] His two best-known plays are The Lass wi' the Muckle Mou (1950), based on the legend of Thomas the Rhymer and The Warld's Wonder (1953), about Michael Scot, the famous magician.
[3] Alexander Reid was born on 19 August 1914 in Edinburgh, and educated at George Heriot's School.
From 1929 to 1936 he worked as a journalist for the Edinburgh Evening News, before writing on Scottish history and literature for the SMT Magazine.
A conscientious objector during World War II, he worked as a bookseller and accountant before becoming a full-time writer and broadcaster in 1948.
It was adapted as a television drama, first broadcast by the BBC on Tuesday 6 October 1953,[5] and was staged again by Edinburgh's Gateway Theatre Company during its 1954-55 season.