Louisa Waugh

Louisa Waugh was born in Berlin, grew up in Liverpool, and spent several years living and working in Mongolia in the mid-1990s. After two years in the Mongolian Capital, Ulaanbaatar, she moved to a village called Tsengel in the Altai mountains of western Mongolia in 1998. During her year in Tsengel (which translates as ‘Delight’) she wrote her monthly letters for the New Internationalist, which were intimate and candid accounts of her time in this small, remote community, where people survive without electricity or running water, and where death is very much part of life.

When she finally returned to Britain, Louisa wrote a book about the people of Tsengel.  Hearing Birds Fly: a nomadic year in Mongolia won the inaugural Ondaatje Literary prize in 2004 for ‘the book which best evokes the spirit of a particular place’ and was also shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Book of the Year Prize.

Louisa’s second book Selling Olga: stories of human trafficking and resistance was published in 2007 and was a groundbreaking investigation into human trafficking across Europe, including Britain.

Louisa has discussed human trafficking with numerous British and international audiences, and has written extensively about international human rights. She is now researching human rights violations in the Gaza Strip, and also taking notes for her third book, which will be a personal account of living under siege in Gaza. In her spare time she studies Arabic, and is a kick-boxer.

The Gaza Blog is a weekly dispatch from the Gaza Strip, from the midst of a Palestinian community under siege. Louisa Waugh’s blogs focus on the ups and downs of everyday life, whether in times of bombardment or ceasefire – and on the attitudes of ordinary Palestinians to food, travel and the Hamas Government. When the war reporters leave, life goes on – and this blog puts us in amongst it.



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