Rashly, she breaks off her engagement to a solid but repressive financier, scandalising her parents and exiling herself to France.

ECONOMIST: New fiction

In the three elections since then the Cambodian leader has gradually eased up on the hardball tactics, occasionally jailing or exiling critics, but also wooing opponents into the fold with promises of power.

ECONOMIST: One of the last (we hope) Asian strongmen

Jilted by the man she loved at the altar, Miss Havisham retreats from the world, exiling herself to her old, decaying mansion, never taking off her disintegrating, yellowing bridal gown and plotting her revenge on the male sex by molding her adopted daughter into a cruel man-eater.

FORBES: Miss Havisham: Fashion's Latest Muse