The Vicar of Baghdad

The Times of London's Catherine O'Brien interviews a man of indisputable fortitude.

He copes with MS, he says, in the way that he copes with everything: “By keeping going and not worrying about it.”

Two years ago, at a rendezvous just outside Baghdad with the kidnappers of a Brazilian, he describes being held in a room for several hours where chopped-off fingers and toes littered the floor. “They were quite fresh,” he says, when I press for more details. And how did he get out unscathed? “I gave them money. About $35,000.”

“Three years ago the Church of England told me that I was too ill to carry on working. There was no longer a place for me in the UK, but I was already working in Baghdad and that is one of the main reasons why I've ended up there.”