Felicity Sidnell Reid
Felicity came to Canada after graduating from the University of London, King’s College. After spending seven years in New Brunswick, she and her family moved to Peterborough, Ontario and later to Toronto. She has taught children of all ages, from Grade 5 to university students and adults, in Canada, England and Thailand. While teaching for the Toronto Board of Education, she taught English, History, ESL and Drama to high school students before taking positions as Vice Principal at Harbord Collegiate and Northern Secondary.
During that time, besides raising four children, and writing poetry, which she mostly consigned to a drawer, she designed costumes for universities, schools and amateur dramatic societies. Her favourite productions were The Toronto Passion Play, for Poculi Ludique Societas, University of Toronto, and a college production of Oedipus Rex, with masks. While teaching Drama she enjoyed directing school plays, remembering productions of Our Town and Blood Relations with particular affection. Wanting to extend her knowledge of Canadian education further, Felicity took an MA in Victorian Studies at the University of Toronto, supplementary qualifications at FEUT and OISE, as well as one of her Principal’s courses, in Yellowknife NWT, where she met educators from all over the Arctic. In 1989, she taught for a winter at Mahasarakham Teachers’ College in Thailand.
She is the author and co-author of a variety of educational materials, including a book for teachers, ESL is Everybody’s Business (with Fran Parkin) and a series of textbooks for language learners. At present, she is completing a novel for young people set in eighteenth century Northumberland County. Her poetry and short fiction has been published in anthologies, including That Not Forgotten (Hidden Brook Press, 2012), local newspapers and on-line. Felicity sits on the Board of Spirit of the Hills Arts Association and is the current chair of the SOH Writers’ Group.
She belongs to several writers’ critiquing circles, including the Pollard Writers’ Group. She also paints in water-colours and acrylic and has shown her work in the past with the Trenton Art Club, BAC and at the Lions’ Art Show for Applefest in Brighton. She is presently an active member of the Cobourg Art Club.