Dr H. John Powell felt the call to medical service in Africa while at Kingswood School , Bath in his teenage years. He later trained for a medical degree in Edinburgh with the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society, after which he was sent to Nigeria by the Methodist Missionary Society arriving in 1941.

He was to be based at The Wesley Guild Hospital in Ilesha , in the southwest of Nigeria spending 10 fascinating years in the medical service as surgeon and doctor there. Dealing with all the aspects of running a small hospital, both medical and mechanical!

This autobiography details his experiences and adventures while in Nigeria . Providing a fascinating insight into the varied trials and tribulations of day-to-day hospital life for a surgeon equipped with a scalpel and a spanner.