Went to Devon for the first time the other day. What a lovely part of the world. First place I’ve ever seen a goth wearing Stone Island
Francisco Garcia
@franciscogarciadf.bsky.social
I write long form features, essays and investigations for the Financial Times, Guardian and loads of other places. I wrote two nonfiction books published by HarperCollins and am working on my first novel at the moment, along with a bunch of other stuff
Thirty years after the end of the Bosnian War, I spent a week travelling across Bosnia charting the work being done to locate the thousands of people still missing observer.co.uk/style/featur...
The search for the missing victims of the Bosnian war
Of the 35,000 people who disappeared during the country’s three-year conflict, 9,000 are still unaccounted for. One institution is tasked with finding them
observer.co.uk
Managed to lock myself out of here for months. Back in, so thought I'd share some new work. Here's my new investigation into three British men who, for diverse and often baffling reasons, have joined the Russian armed forces over the past three years. Listen here: observer.co.uk/listen/the-s...
Rogue Brits: Fighting for Putin | The Observer
observer.co.uk
Here’s a new piece from me about the violence enveloping Woolwich, & the young lives it has claimed. It’s also about the mothers who did everything to keep their children safe, only for their efforts to prove unequal to the forces set against them observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
When love is not enough: the mothers left grieving by Bri...
The number of teenage boys killed on our streets has more than doubled in a decade. We spoke to some of the bereaved parents trying to make sense of it all
observer.co.uk
Typically excellent article by @franciscogarciadf.bsky.social talking to the mothers of London’s teenage murder victims observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
When love is not enough: counting the cost of Britain’s k...
The number of teenage boys killed on our streets has more than doubled in a decade. We spoke to some of the grieving mothers trying to make sense of it all
observer.co.uk
Some cool news. Am now senior writer at The Observer!
Thanks to @franciscogarciadf.bsky.social for his really generous review of The Last Bell, and my boxing writing over the years, in the New Statesman. It meant a lot to read it....which can be done by just registering www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...
The glory and grime of boxing
In The Last Bell: Life, Death and Boxing, Donald McRae deftly captures the sport’s ugliness and exhilaration.
newstatesman.com
My new @theguardian.com longread is about the UK's university innocence projects- a radical, if imperfect, attempt at addressing miscarriages of justice. I am grateful to everyone who gave me their time this past year. It is an extraordinary story www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ap...
‘We thought we could change the world’: how an idealistic fight against miscarriages of justice turned sour
When a no-nonsense lecturer set up a radical solution to help free the wrongfully convicted in the UK, he was hopeful he could change the justice system. But what started as a revolution ended in acri...
theguardian.com
‘100,000 people took to Slavija Square in Belgrade in the largest demonstration in Serbia for at least two decades. In January, students initiated a 24-hour blockade of the capital.’ Francisco Garcia on Belgrade’s Novi Sad disaster, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ma...
Francisco Garcia | In Belgrade
On 1 November 2024, a concrete canopy collapsed at the renovated railway station in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second city,...
lrb.co.uk
If I ever lose millions in bitcoin in a Welsh dump, I like to believe I'd simply get over it and have a laugh www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Man who lost bitcoin fortune in Welsh tip explores purchase of entire landfill
James Howells lost case to force Newport city council to allow him to search for hard drive discarded by accident
theguardian.com
Experiencing the sort of feverish deadline mania where I'm beginning to curse the fact I was ever taught to read and write
"During my reporting, the phrase neocolonial was never far from conversation." Great long read tracing the opposition to a huge lithium mine in Serbia. www.newstatesman.com/internationa.... | @franciscogarciadf.bsky.social
The battle for the soul of Serbia
The need for lithium is driving a global race for resources – and plans for a mine 120 miles from Belgrade have triggered social and political turmoil.
newstatesman.com
The need for lithium is driving a global race for resources – and plans for a mine 120 miles from Belgrade have triggered social and political turmoil. Read Francisco Garcia on the battle for the soul of Serbia:
The battle for the soul of Serbia
The need for lithium is driving a global race for resources – and plans for a mine 120 miles from Belgrade have triggered social and political turmoil.
newstatesman.com
Good piece by @franciscogarciadf.bsky.social on geopolitics of lithium mining in Serbia. Resonates with Irish context. Ireland also been identified as a 'hot spot' for critical minerals, which has everything to do with its peripheral position within the EU. www.newstatesman.com/internationa...
The battle for the soul of Serbia
The need for lithium is driving a global race for resources – and plans for a mine 120 miles from Belgrade have triggered social and political turmoil.
newstatesman.com
For the past six months, I’ve been reporting on the highly controversial plan to open ‘Europe’s largest lithium mine’ in Serbia. You can read the resulting long read here if you’d like www.newstatesman.com/internationa...
The battle for the soul of Serbia
The need for lithium is driving a global race for resources – and plans for a mine 120 miles from Belgrade have triggered social and political turmoil.
newstatesman.com
Glaswegians made up 12% of the Scottish volunteers who died in Spain. In our weekend read, Francisco Garcia battles November slush to unpick the heroic and complicated legacies of four men who differed in temperament but were bonded by political belief - and imprisonment.
What happened to the Scots who went to fight in the Spanish Civil War?
Documenting Scotland's doomed fighters
glasgowbell.co.uk
Very happy to have written this piece on a remarkable book coauthored by four very remarkable people
The Glasgow Bell@glasgowbell.bsky.social · 2y agoIn the 1930s, Scotland's thriving left-wing movement meant hundreds of volunteers answered the call to fight in the Spanish Civil War. They were to be part of a doomed coalition - and their descendants are still piecing together their stories.
Here’s a fun piece that I wrote for this weekend’s FT about the history and contested future of London’s Blue Plaques www.ft.com/content/371f...
Blue plaque thinking: memorialisation on the move in the London scheme
Decisions about who should be honoured are fraught with controversy — can 2025 better reflect the historic cultural richness of the capital?
ft.com
In third place, @franciscogarciadf.bsky.social spent months speaking to the declining band of residents in Soho. www.the-fence.com/last-days-of...
Last Days of Soho
A dispatch from the naughty rhombus just below Oxford Street.
the-fence.com
Been a very productive and interesting year of work. Slowly finishing up for 2024, though excited to share some new projects and long form pieces in the NY. Cheers!
New longread on 'the future of Soho' and its dwindling residential community in the @thefence.bsky.social, which was an editor's pic in @longreads.com www.the-fence.com/last-days-of...
Last Days of Soho
Soho is poised at a critical juncture. The issue lies in the rancorous disagreements between its various constituents about the kind of future that should be pursued in this square mile of prime real…
the-fence.com
My April @theguardian.com longread which was shortlisted for best investigation at last months Anti-Slavery Awards in parliament www.theguardian.com/law/ng-inter...
From low-level drug dealer to human trafficker: are modern slavery laws catching the wrong people?
The long read: When I heard that a boy from my primary school had been convicted of trafficking, I had to find out what had happened to make him fall so far
theguardian.com
Hello! Getting set up here and thought I'd share a few substantial pieces from this year. Here's my October 5th @financialtimes.com cover on the 'Blake Escape' and why it took 25 years for the British state to catch up with those responsible www.ft.com/content/2c9e...
Why it took 25 years to solve the greatest prison break in British history
The unlikely story of the trio behind Soviet agent George Blake’s infamous bolt from Wormwood Scrubs
ft.com