He retells the story of a British Foreign Office applicant being asked to name the two most important things in the world.

ECONOMIST: Where the power lies in Britain

The chapter on streaking retells the well-worn stories of long-ago escapades at sporting events, but the reader longs to hear from the participants.

ECONOMIST: Stripping off has never been easy

Warren Buffett retells the story of the dead oil prospector who gets stopped at the pearly gates and is told by St Peter that Heaven's allocation of miners is full up.

ECONOMIST: Investors tend to chase the latest fad

Mr Browner nicely retells, for instance, the cautionary tale of Lady Ottoline Morrell, a well-meaning but slightly dim toff who thought she had found her role in life as hostess to London's literary smart set.

ECONOMIST: Hospitality

He retells the terrible siege of Dien Bien Phu earlier that spring, when the North Vietnamese commander, Vo Ngu-yen Giap, made thousands of porters drag artillery into the hills surrounding a French base, from where they pounded the foreign army.

ECONOMIST: The first Vietnam war

The film Red Cliff by director John Woo, the most expensive ever made in China, retells the story of a battle on the Yangtze river, as Cao Cao's navy is moored on one bank while Liu Bei and his accomplices are plotting on the other.

BBC: Liu Bei: China's warlord who teaches good management