Hanging Man is the most detailed, comprehensive and eloquent English-language account of what happens these days to Chinese political prisoners. It is horrifying and should make apologists for the People’s Republic of China, such as Martin Jacques, author of When China Rules the World, think again.

Born in 1957, the son of Ai Qing, one of Mao’s favourite poets until he was purged, Ai Weiwei may be the only Chinese artist of whom readers of the Literary Review have heard, if only because he is the creator, or organiser, of the hundred million handmade sunflower seeds