Laurence Blair Author

Laurence Blair (b. 1991, Dorset, UK) is a journalist and writer who covers Latin America for outlets including the BBC, The Economist, the Financial Times, the Guardian, National Geographic, and History Today.

Over nearly a decade's reporting, he has broken stories about archaeological discoveries in the Atacama Desert and coup attempts in Bolivia and Paraguay; rafted down Amazonian rivers with former rebels in Colombia and flown into drug plantations with special forces; trekked over the Andes with Argentine gauchos into Chile, journeyed to remote islands off the coast of Peru, and walked with Venezuelan refugees into the lawless Darien jungle.

He studied Ancient and Modern History at the University of Oxford before moving to South America, where he is currently based out of Asunción, Paraguay. Winner of the Bodley Head/Financial Times Essay Prize for Dreams of the Sea - his tale of a visit to Bolivia's landlocked navy - and the Royal Society of Literature's Giles St Aubyn Award, Lost Countries is his first book.