Max Hastings

Although China remains a tyranny, since the 1970s it has become a significantly less brutal one. Li Datong, a journalist who was sacked last year as a magazine editor for crossing the low threshold of political criticism that the government will tolerate, said: "We have progressed. For instance, it is possible for you to meet me, which could not have happened in Mao’s time."

Mark Ellingham has made a sizeable fortune from the creation of the Rough Guides to almost everywhere. He is shortlisted for the Royal Society’s prize for science writing, for his book The Rough Guide to Climate Change. Now, in a conversion that would command the admiration of St Paul, he declares that "binge-flying" constitutes a huge threat to the global environment.

In Moscow shortly after 9/11 a clever Russian academic told me: "Don’t believe all that stuff Putin is dishing out about how sorry we all are about what has happened. A lot of people here are thrilled to see the Americans get a kicking.” A few months ago I heard a cluster of diplomats lament the difficulties of doing business with the Russians, writes Max Hastings.