Stuart Laing is an Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, having been Master of the College from 2008 to 2018. After studying Classics at Cambridge (Corpus Christi, 1967-70), his first career was in the British Foreign Service, where he specialised in Arab and Middle Eastern affairs. After Arabic language study in Lebanon, he served in Saudi Arabia and in Cairo, and also in Brussels and Prague. He was High Commissioner in Brunei (1998-2003), then Ambassador in Muscat (2002-05), and later in Kuwait (2005-08). He researches, writes and lectures on Arab and African history, and on Middle East politics. He is co-author (with Robert Alston) of a book on Omani-British history, Unshook Till the End of Time, and has published a biography of Tippu Tip, the Arab-African ivory trader.