We talk on here about China, and aluminium, and carbon. Politics and economics, markets, and business.

So here is something completely different.

If you are like me, and find yourself travelling way too much, you would have deduced, like me, that you can lose almost an hour in the process of boarding a plane and waiting until the clearance to start using electronic equipment. Same on the way down - there’s at least half an hour where you must detach yourself from your iPad, notebook or smartphone. And if you are leaving or arriving at Beijing airport, those delays can stretch into many hours.

I have therefore gone retro, and start reading paperbacks during those times. Back in the 90s, it wasn’t unusual to see half the plane buried in a John Grisham novel (his sales must have died when iPads were released). Now when you walk around the plane, everyone is playing a game or reading an e-book. But not during take-off and landing.

The reason I am telling you this is because I have just finished reading one of the most delightful books I have read in a long time. It’s called “The 100-year-old man who climbed out the window and disappeared”, by Jonas Jonasson. It is set in Sweden, and follows the journey of a centenarian who decides to escape an old-age home. Through flashbacks, we discover that this man has had a very interesting life, having met Truman, Mao Tse Dong, LBJ, De Gaulle, Kim Jong Il, Stalin and Churchill. All of them by accident.

It’s a great little satire on modern history, using the old man as a device to show us how the biggest world events are triggered by the personality, interests and intellects of some individuals - individuals who just happen to be in charge of the world. The book is in the same tradition as Umberto Eco’s “The Prague Cemetery”, except that the world events in Eco’s book occur some 50-100 years earlier, and the two works are far apart in terms of mood and style.

Some 95% of the books I read on planes stay on board - they are not worth keeping. I have read almost all of Lee Child’s books, for instance, and while they are a good read, there’s no chance I would hang on to them. This book however, about the 100-year old Allan Karlsson is going into my bookcase. Enough said.

According to the back cover, it is being made into a movie. If you aren’t a reader, watch out for the movie.