Tessellar Male, 52, Married. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Bjorn Lomborg does not deny climate change caused by man, but he does look at it dispassionately and critically examines the options available to mankind. This of course exasperates the people who see overcoming climate change as a moral imperative ("if you are not with us then you are under the pay of the coal companies"); who see the limiting of economic growth as a kind of collective salvation against certain natural cataclysm. Even better if it is the poorer developing countries who must limit their growth: God forbid that the masses in China and India get to enjoy living standards as high as the citizens of Western world. Lomborg considers:"the world will get warmer: when this happens who gains who suffers. Can we alleviate the problems?". He sees the current model of technological progress and economic growth as having achieved great improvements in the quality of life for humankind, and the same model can overcome the problems of climate change. Lomborg made a big impression on me in his first book, "The Skeptical Environmentalist" and I think he has again made a very good case against unthinking environmentalism (though I should have waited to buy the later British edition which I understand is a longer version).

Man and civilization has progressed and flourished in spite of (in some ways, because of) the genocidal tyrants of the past. I have a lot less sympathy for subject than John Man, but I share his fascination. The most interesting part of the book is the section about Kublai Khan reaching the limits of his power - the defeat of his forces off the shores of Japan, out-fought by the fiercely independent Vietnamese, and - closer to home - outwitted by the wily Javanese, who went on to found the Majapahit Empire.