Jonathan Kaplan was born in South Africa and studied medicine in Cape Town. He did his first work as a surgeon surrounded by the violence of apartheid. When he was called up by the army for the war in Angola, he left for England and the US. After 10 years of research and surgery, he became a battlefield surgeon, working in trouble-spots such as Kurdistan, Mozambique, Burma, Eritrea and Iraq. He also makes documentaries and works as a photographer. His accounts of life on the front line form the basis of his bestselling book, The Dressing Station (Picador 2001).

What was it like working in Iraq?

I thought I would be working as a surgeon in Baghdad, but the condition of the hospitals was so dreadful that it was almost impossible to do any organised, safe surgery. The operating theatres had been used intensively during the bombing and had received ...