Mao: a Life, by Philip Short (Hodder and Stoughton, £12.99 in UK)

MAO ZEDONG was undoubtedly one of the great personalities in a century not short of them, though his ultimate place in history is hard to define. What is unarguable is the vast influence he wielded in China over decades, starting as a commonplace student revolutionary, then becoming a Communist prophet, and gradually the left-wing challenger to the corrupt regime of Chiang Kai-shek. The famous Long March, which became an essential part of Mao's mythology, is shown as being in reality a desperate retreat when the Red Army had been outmanoeuvred strategically, and only 15,000 of the original 80,000 marchers survived. Sweeping to power in the immediate post-war years, Mao lived to become a utopian reactionary, though his personal prestige with his fellow-Chinese remained powerful to the end. Weighty and well researched, though only students and enthusiasts are likely to read all of the book's 782 pages.