[1][2] With Clive Wake he published several anthologies, as well as translations from French of the work of Léopold Sédar Senghor and Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, in Heinemann's African Writers Series.
John Reed made a journal entry every day of his life in his diaries (now held at Chetham’s Library, Manchester[4]) from the age of ten until his death in 2012.
In 1957 he travelled to Salisbury to take up a teaching post, soon becoming involved in the anti-colonial political struggle, and developing a close friendship with Terence Ranger.
He was later forced to leave Rhodesia or face arrest, and took up a professorship at the University of Zambia at Lusaka.
There he worked to develop theatre which drew on indigenous traditions and promoted the growth of a new generation of African dramatists.