Laurance Reed

Laurance Douglas Reed, MP (born 4 December 1937) was a British Member of Parliament and political writer. He was educated at Gresham's School in Norfolk and University College, Oxford, then served his National Service with the Royal Navy from 1956 to 1958, and from 1963 to 1966 worked and studied at Brussels, Bruges, Leyden, Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Paris, Rome, Bologna and Geneva. He worked at the Public Sector Research Unit from 1967 to 1970, and was elected as a Conservative member of parliament for Bolton East in 1970, serving until 1974. The Soay of our Forefathers was first published privately in 1986 then republished by Birlinn in 2002. It is the definitive account of the beautiful and little known island of Soay, and it incorporates a great deal of original research.