Skip To Main Content
Lucy Ash on Muck Rack

Lucy Ash

Verified
London
As seen in: Bottom Line, UOL, BBC, BBC Mundo, BBC News, Terra, The Guardian, The Independent (UK), The Telegraph, Yahoo Canada and
Covers:  Foreign Affairs with a special interest in Russia and the Former Soviet Union, social affairs, history and culture.
Foreign affairs broadcaster and author; BBC presenter. Author @iconbooks *SHORTLISTS : BRITISH ACADEMY BOOK PRIZE ; ORWELL PRIZE 2025* & PUSHKIN HOUSE PRIZE
Back to Lucy Ash’s profile

Lucy Ash’s Journalist Portfolio

View as a grid

Inside Poland's 'LGBT-free zones'

Inside Poland's 'LGBT-free zones'

BBC — In Poland, dozens of small towns have declared themselves free of "LGBT ideology". Politicians' hostility to gay rights has become a flashpoint, pitting the religious right against more liberal-minded Poles. And gay people living in these areas are faced with a choice: emigrate, keep their heads down - or fight back.
Who shared?

Talking Books

Talking Books

IE2002EntireIssueRDIE.pdf — Reading may be a solitary activity, but getting together to discuss a book is a booming phenomenon.
Who shared?

Dyatlov Pass

Dyatlov Pass

BBC — In the dead of winter, a group of students set out on a trek into the Ural Mountains. Their frozen bodies - with inexplicable injuries - were discovered in locations that compounded the puzzle of how they died. The Dyatlov Pass mystery spawned dozens of conspiracy theories, which have endured for 60 years.
Who shared?

Russian domestic violence: Women fight back

Russian domestic violence: Women fight back

BBC — Two years ago, many Russians were shocked when the parliament significantly reduced penalties for domestic violence. Since then, women have been fighting back - demanding new legislation to restrain abusers, demonstrating in support of three sisters who took the law into their own hands, and finding new ways of tackling outdated attitudes on gender.
Who shared?

Why are graduates competing to be prison officers?

Why are graduates competing to be prison officers?

BBC — The government-backed Unlocked Graduates scheme trains university leavers to work as prison officers. But how much difference can they make in prisons where staffing levels are low, and it's a rush even to do the bare minimum? In a packed lecture theatre at the University of Suffolk, a man in a smart suit is telling his life story.
Who shared?

'I rented a mouldy flat - from the deputy mayor'

'I rented a mouldy flat - from the deputy mayor'

BBC — The collapse of two apartment buildings in Marseille last November left the city in mourning for eight people who died, but also furious.
Who shared?

Making A Difference

Making A Difference

Reader's Digest — An article on what makes people give up their time to help others from children on the frontline in East Ukraine to refugees in Calais and pensioners in the UK.
View PDF Who shared?

The Christmas present that could tear your family apart

The Christmas present that could tear your family apart

BBC — This Christmas it's likely that more people than ever before will spit into a tube, or swab some cheek cells and send the result off for DNA analysis. Millions in the US have already done it, and the craze is spreading. But what happens when you find out a lot more than you were expecting?
Who shared?

One century on, Britain's 'forgotten' war with Russia

One century on, Britain's 'forgotten' war with Russia

The Telegraph — Lord Ironside opens the leather-bound album resting on his lap to show me his favourite photograph. "Look at that!" he says, pointing to a picture of a broad-shouldered man in a coat made from reindeer skins. The moustachioed wall of fur towers over a small Russian boy standing next to him in the snow.
Who shared?

Last call for Nevada's brothels?

Last call for Nevada's brothels?

BBC — There have been brothels in Nevada since the days of the Gold Rush, but in one of the state's 16 counties that could be about to change. Voters in Lyon County have a chance to put an end to legal prostitution in November, in a ballot coinciding with the country's mid-term elections.
Who shared?

The crop that put women on top

The crop that put women on top

BBC — Seaweed has been hailed as a new superfood, and it's also found in toothpaste, medicine and shampoo. In Zanzibar, it's become big business - and as it has been farmed principally by women, it has altered the sexual balance of power.
Who shared?

Russians in Britain: A Handbook - Five things we learned about Russians in the UK - BBC Radio 4

Russians in Britain: A Handbook - Five things we learned about Russians in the UK - BBC Radio 4

BBC — Under Putin, businessmen are left alone as long as they steer clear of politics. For many who have upset the regime, the UK is regarded as a safe haven. The annexation of Crimea and the Ukraine conflicts have triggered a further influx.
Who shared?

Goodbye Russia: A generation packs its bags

Goodbye Russia: A generation packs its bags

BBC — Russia's leading environmental activist is one of more than a million people - many of them young and well-educated - who have packed their bags and left the country in recent years, writes the BBC's Lucy Ash. Russian even has a word for the phenomenon, "poravalism". "Do I feel homesick?"
Who shared?

'Death Island': Britain's 'concentration camp' in Russia

'Death Island': Britain's 'concentration camp' in Russia

BBC — When British soldiers were sent to Russia after the Russian Revolution their main enemies were the Germans - their opponents in World War One - but they also found themselves fighting and imprisoning Bolsheviks. In the process they opened what Russians regard as the first concentration camp in their country.
Who shared?

Spy or journalist?

Spy or journalist?

BBC — The family of Algerian journalist Said Chitour has been desperately trying to secure his release since he was arrested on espionage charges after visiting Spain, writes the BBC's Lucy Ash. When I worked with Chitour, what I remember most is his throaty laugh.
Who shared?

What do Russians think of their doping whistleblower?

What do Russians think of their doping whistleblower?

BBC — Fearing for her safety, Russian 800m runner Yuliya Stepanova fled her country after she revealed the dirty secrets of doping in Russian athletics. She has been called the greatest whistleblower in the history of sport but what do people think of the athlete in her homeland?
Who shared?

The Dutch prison crisis: A shortage of prisoners

The Dutch prison crisis: A shortage of prisoners

BBC — While the UK and much of the world struggles with overcrowded prisons, the Netherlands has the opposite problem. It is actually short of people to lock up. In the past few years 19 prisons have closed down and more are slated for closure next year.
Who shared?

Bolshoi Confidential review - where scandal waits in the wings

Bolshoi Confidential review - where scandal waits in the wings

The Guardian — Simon Morrison's intoxicating history of the Bolshoi Ballet suggests that the recent acid attack on its artistic director was far from an aberration
Who shared?

Inside France's 'boot camp' for wavering radicals

Inside France's 'boot camp' for wavering radicals

bbc.com — Under pressure to tackle home-grown jihadism, the French government is opening a string of rehabilitation centres to combat extremism - and the first one is already proving controversial. There's a pink sky over the vineyards of the Loire Valley.
Who shared?

Raped for speaking out against rape

Raped for speaking out against rape

BBC — A Colombian woman who denounced armed groups for sexually abusing women and girls was abducted by the militants and subjected to a terrible punishment. Her story illustrates just how much power lies in the hands of armed men in Colombia - despite a ceasefire by the left-wing Farc rebels - and how lawless some parts of the country remain.
Who shared?

Romania's Sheep Bite Back

Romania's Sheep Bite Back

The World Today Magazine —
Who shared?

The real crime-fighting 'Charlie's Angels'

The real crime-fighting 'Charlie's Angels'

BBC — Three women have become the scourge of Macedonia's political elite and heroines of the street protests now rocking the tiny Balkan nation - some call them the country's Charlie's Angels. At six o'clock in the evening, a noisy crowd gathers outside a non-descript office next to a burger bar in the centre of Skopje.
Who shared?

Reinventing China's abortion police

Reinventing China's abortion police

BBC — They caused heartache for millions but now some of China's hated population police - who for years enforced China's one-child policy, ordering families to have abortions or pay huge fines - have a new job. Two-year-old Liu Siqi is curled up on her grandmother's lap, complaining of a tummy ache.
Who shared?

A new threat in the mountains of Transylvania

A new threat in the mountains of Transylvania

BBC — The tradition of transhumance - the seasonal movement of sheep - is still practised in Romania. But shepherds say a law restricting the number of sheepdogs they are allowed to use could threaten their way of life. "Do you want to see my house?" asks Ion at the door of the cowshed.
Who shared?
Show More