I'm a freelance journalist based in Paraguay. Since 2014, I’ve travelled widely across Latin America on assignment, reporting in print, radio and video for the BBC, The New York Times, the Guardian, The Economist and others.

I’m the author of PATRIA: Lost Countries of South America, an alternative history of the continent. It was a Financial Times Best Book of 2024. The Telegraph gave it five stars. Marie Arana called it “a magnificent contribution to the Latin American canon.” It featured on the Rest is History podcast, where Dominic Sandbrook called it “absolutely wonderful”.

I’m editor-at-large of The Paraguay Post, an independent source of news and analysis on South America’s most intriguing and least understood country. We won Paraguay’s National Environmental Journalism Prize in 2025 for our investigation into narcotrafficking in the Mbaracayú Forest Reserve.

I studied history at university, and love chasing stories that lead me off the beaten track, whether on foot, in the saddle, in the archive or with a paddle. I was born and raised in Dorset, southwest England.

Get in touch: with tips, feedback, commissions, queries, or just to say hi, you can reach me on laurie.a.blair@gmail.com. I’m also on X @laurieablair and on Instagram @printsoflblair.