June 18, 1815. Napoleon’s attempt to rebuild his empire, after escaping exile on the island of Elba and regaining control of France, came to an abrupt and disastrous end near a place called Mont Saint ...

When I was young, one of my favourite TV shows was M*A*S*H. Set in a US mobile hospital during the Korean War, the army doctors and nurses approached their work with wacky black humour. As the ...

Dominique Jean Larrey, the chief surgeon for Napoleon’s army, is regarded as the father of modern military surgery. His was a remarkable career. Observing how many injured soldiers lay on the ...

Richardson's lively, well-researched book is a study of the man rather than the medicine, but there is lots of gory detail about the battlefield surgery Larrey did so much to advance. Larrey: Surgeon ...