Laurence Oliphant (3 August 1829 – 23 December 1888), a Member of Parliament, was a South African-born British author, traveller, diplomat, British intelligence agent, Christian mystic, and Christian Zionist. His best known book in his lifetime was a satirical novel, Piccadilly (1870). More heed has gone since to his scheme for planting Jewish farming colonies in the Holy Land, The Land of Gilead. Oliphant was a UK Member of Parliament for Stirling Burghs.