David Loyn

David Loyn has been a foreign correspondent for more than 25 years, and was the only foreign reporter with the Taliban when they took Kabul in 1996. In 2006, he spent time with a local Taliban commander travelling through Helmand, protected from death only by the fact that he was a guest - his security was the Pashtun honour code. He has covered conflicts on three continents, and won major awards for both TV and radio reporting, including 'Journalist of the Year' in the Royal Television Society Awards in 1999. Frontline, his first book, was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. His second book, Butcher and Bolt – 200 Years of Foreign Engagement in Afghanistan, was published in 2008.